Ruben Villa and Shakur Stevenson fought four times as amateurs, all within a span of less than one year.
Villa defeated Stevenson in the first of those two matches, but Stevenson won their last two fights at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials. Stevenson went on to win a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and already has won a featherweight world title as a professional.
Villa has developed at a more measured pace, but the skillful southpaw is in position to fight for Stevenson’s WBO 126-pound championship. The Salinas, California, native gladly would fight Stevenson again, but the 23-year-old Villa expects the unbeaten Stevenson to relinquish his title to move up to the 130-pound division.
“It would be a very good fight,” Villa told BoxingScene.com about facing Stevenson. “But as far as him moving up to 130, I think he’s probably gonna do it pretty soon because he’s a big kid already. I don’t see him wanting to wait for anyone to move up to 130. He can probably get bigger money against a guy like [Oscar] Valdez at 130.”
Stevenson reiterated during a recent interview with BoxingScene.com that he’ll move up to 130 pounds once the COVID-19 pandemic ends because the only fight that could keep him at featherweight is a title unification match against England’s Josh Warrington. The 22-year-old Stevenson (13-0, 7 KOs) is willing to box Warrington (30-0, 7 KOs) in his hometown of Leeds, but Warrington, the IBF champion, has committed to facing China’s Can Xu (18-2, 3 KOs), the WBA champion, in his next fight.
If Stevenson vacates his title, the WBO could order a bout between Ireland’s Michael Conlan (13-0, 7 KOs), its number one featherweight contender, and Villa (18-0, 5 KOs), who’s ranked second, for its unclaimed championship. If Stevenson remains at featherweight, he doesn’t think their promoter, Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc., would match him against Conlan.
“A fight between me and Conlan would be pretty big,” Villa said. “That would be another good fight. He’s another big name in my weight class. I feel like if we fought, it would really make noise in the 126-pound division. Ever since he brought the big news with the middle finger [at the 2016 Summer Olympics], I’ve been following his career. A win over someone with his name would be good for my career. But for right now, we’re just waiting for this to end and to get a date.”
Villa’s victories over Enrique Vivas and Alexei Collado in his last two fights convinced him and his team that Villa is ready to fight for a world title.
He defeated Cuba’s Collado (26-3, 23 KOs) by unanimous decision in a 10-rounder Showtime televised as part of its “ShoBox: The New Generation” series January 31 from Shreveport, Louisiana. In Villa’s previous outing, he out-boxed Mexico’s Vivas (18-1, 10 KOs) even easier on his way to a 10-round, unanimous-decision win September 20 in Midland, Texas.
“We’ve been pretty patient with my career and my last two fights were against tough opponents,” Villa said. “I liked the way I looked, I performed good and the team was happy with my performance. I didn’t get here the easy way, so I’m willing to fight Stevenson or for the vacant title. I believe I belong with the best.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.