Ruben Villa’s career on the line after shock Segawa loss

By Eric Armit

IT may have flown slightly under the radar, but Sulaiman Segawa pulled off a huge upset by scoring a unanimous decision win over Ruben Villa in Las Vegas last weekend. The Ugandan won the battle of southpaws, using his longer reach and high work rate. 

He was feeding Villa right jabs from the start, and Villa looked sluggish as Segawa was getting his punches off first and putting together some sharp combinations.

Villa was having no luck with his natural counterpuncher style. He was often on the front foot, being targeted by counters from Segawa with little success. 

Segawa was finding gaps in Villa’s defence that should not have been there. Villa stepped up his own work rate, but Segawa was more accurate, continually finding the target with straight lefts. 

On the occasions when they stood and traded punches, Segawa was throwing more and landing more. Villa had a good fourth, landing some crisp uppercuts and twice rocking Segawa with rights.

Villa outscored Segawa in the sixth, but that did not preface any change in the fight’s flow. Segawa again put in a higher level of work in the seventh and surprisingly outboxed the more skilful Villa, who was not firing with his normal accuracy. 

Segawa was working overtime with his right jab and using his strength to push Villa away when Villa got inside. Villa had heavy bruising around his left eye. 

Villa rocked Segawa with a right hook in the eighth, but Segawa then landed two hard lefts only for Villa to drive home a series of body shots that had Segawa backing off. 

Segawa took the ninth as Villa was just not throwing enough punches and Segawa closed the round scoring with a series of punches. 

Segawa used his jab to boss the first half of the tenth, and Villa attacked hard in the second half, but it was Segawa’s round and Segawa’s fight. 

The scores came in at 98-92, 97-93 and 96-94 for Segawa, who won the WBC Silver title. Villa was No 1 with the WBC, so this was a huge win for Segawa and a big blow for Villa. 

Segawa had lost widely against unbeaten Argentinian Mirco Cuello over eight rounds in March, so he looked like a fairly safe opponent for Villa. However, Villa never really came to terms with Segawa’s high work rate and had a night he would want to forget. It is Villa’s second career stumble after his 2020 loss to Emanuel Navarrete (below).