Salinas’ Villa gets world title shot
SALINAS >> After months of preparation, Salinas native Ruben Villa will compete Friday for the World Boxing Organization’s vacant featherweight world title belt in a nationally televised bout on ESPN.
Villa, 23, will take on Emanuel Navarrete of Mexico at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas at 7 p.m.
“I’ve been working for this my whole life pretty much, I started boxing at 5,” Villa told The Herald Wednesday. “Every fighter and boxer dreams of fighting for a world title and to bring one back to Salinas for the first time would be huge for me and my family.”
In a news conference broa dc a st on E SPN+ Wednesday, Villa ( 18- 0, 5KOs) wore a T-shirt that read “Just a kid from Salinas” and was asked about training in his community before the title fight.
“Running with a mask on and seeing the fieldworkers working during the pandemic and the fires, it’s just another motivation for me to win this fight,” he said.
The boxer’s grandparents were agricultural workers and met while laboring in Salinas strawberry fields. Villa will auction off several items, including his fight- worn shoes, and donate the proceeds to help farmworker families and children at the Alisal Family Resource Center in East Salinas. Besides trying to represent his hometown on TV, Villa has helped collect toys, backpacks and clothing for homeless children and sponsored local afterschool fitness programs at his neighborhood gym to try and give back.
“Working in the community is just something I enjoy doing,” he said. “Giving back is something I’ve always enjoyed doing and my parents always told me and installed in me that it’s good to give back when I’m doing so good. I feel like boxing is just a platform for me to give back and do whatever I can to help the city.”
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors in 2018 named July 24 in Villa’s honor as “Ruben Villa Day” in Monterey County. Team Villa Boxing Gym was named a 2017 Monterey County Peace Award recipient for their work training and mentoring other young boxers.
“Salinas is very proud of our local champion Ruben Villa who is set to make boxing history. He’s always been a champion inside and outside of the ring,” Super v isor Luis Alejo said in a press release. “I’m proud that he never forgot about his community and the many farmworkers who put food on the tables of millions of Americans every day, especially during this pandemic and all the California wildfires.”
Sam Garcia , Villa’s trainer, said the poor air quality from wildfires burning in Monterey County and across the state presented more of a challenge than COVID-19 in the preparation for the fight. Villa and his team were put into a COVID-19 bubble in a camphouse and Garcia’s gym.
“We all stayed in the same house and we all got tested and we were all really disciplined about what we did and how we stayed responsible,” Garcia said. “The real challenge, honestly, was the wildfires because they caused the (poor) air quality. Running inside isn’t optimal.”
Garcia said Navarrete (32-1, 28 KOs) should be a good matchup for Villa stylistically.
“It’ s an aggressive puncher in Navarrete versus a slick southpaw boxer, which Ruben Villa is,” he said. “It’s a good styles clash of who can impose their will. Who can implement their style the best will be victorious and we’re pretty confident that Ruben’s ready for whatever Navarrete has to bring.”
Villa said he’s confident that his style will be beneficial.
“He’s a strong, aggressive guy who’s coming up from (the 122- pound weight class to fight for the vacant 126-pound title),” he said. “He’s coming to win, he’s coming to fight and we’re expecting a hard fight to win a world title, as it should be.”
There won’t be any fans for the fight at the MGM Grand due to COVID-19 but Villa said it shouldn’t be a big factor.
“Usually when I’m fighting, I’ll get a glimpse of my mom’s voice, or my grandpa’s voice or my dad’s voice, but then I’m just in my mode where mostly everything is going too fast where there’s no distractions while I’m fighting,” he said.
Besides being shown on ESPN, fans can watch the fight on- screen live at a drive-thru event at the Monterey County Fairgrounds on the fight night with tickets available at tickets. montereycountyfair.com/tickets going for $40 per car.