Ruben Villa (born April 16, 1997) is an American professional boxer who challenged for the

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing ...

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, this ...

title in October 2020. As an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

he was a two-time U.S. National

Golden Gloves The Golden Gloves is the name given to annual competitions for amateur boxing in the United States, where they are awarded a belt and a ring. And the title of nations champion is awarded. The Golden Gloves is a term used to refer to the Nation ...

champion. As of June 2020, he is ranked as the world's eighth best active featherweight by ''The Ring''.

Amateur career

As an amateur, Villa compiled a record of 116–17, winning two U.S. National Golden Gloves Championships and competing at the U.S. Olympic Trials. He holds notable wins over WBO featherweight champion, Shakur Stevenson, and

WBC lightweight champion This is a list of WBC world champions, showing every world champion certificated by the World Boxing Council (WBC). The WBC is one of the four major governing bodies in professional boxing, and certifies world champions in 18 different weight cl ...

, Devin Haney.

Professional career

Villa made his professional debut on July 29, 2016, scoring a first-round

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

(KO) victory over Gerardo Molina at the DoubleTree Hotel in

Ontario, California Ontario is a city in southwestern San Bernardino County in the U.S. state of California, east of downtown Los Angeles and west of downtown San Bernardino, the county seat. Located in the western part of the Inland Empire metropolitan area, ...

. After compiling a record of 10–0 (4 KOs) he defeated Marlon Olea on April 14, 2018, at the Salinas Storm House in

Salinas, California Salinas (; Spanish for "Salt Marsh or Salt Flats") is a city in California and the county seat of Monterey County. With a population of 163,542 in the 2020 Census, Salinas is the most populous city in Monterey County. Salinas is an urban area lo ...

, capturing the

Youth

title by

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighter ...

(UD) over eight rounds. All three judges scored the bout 80–72. After four more wins in non-title fights, one by KO, he won his second professional title by defeating Luis Lopez-Vargas via UD on May 10, 2019, to capture the vacant WBO International featherweight title, with the judges' scorecards reading 98–92, 97–93 and 96–94. He retained the title against Enrique Vivas by UD in September followed by a UD victory against Alexei Collado in January 2020.

Professional boxing record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Villa, Ruben Living people 1997 births American male boxers Sportspeople from Salinas, California Boxers from California Featherweight boxers Super-featherweight boxers