ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey – The brutality Roiman Villa suffered Saturday night left the brave welterweight contender with a broken nose, but he didn’t sustain any other injuries during his 10th-round knockout loss to Jaron Ennis.
Sampson Lewkowicz, Villa’s promoter, informed BoxingScene.com on Sunday that Villa was discharged from AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center early Sunday morning after passing various tests on his brain. Villa, 30, is expected to fly home to Los Angeles on Monday, as planned.
“He’s OK,” Lewkowicz said. “He has a fracture in the nose, but the rest, everything’s good. We did an MRI and all of that, and thank God, everything is good.”
The Venezuelan veteran absorbed a lot of punishment during his one-sided defeat to the unbeaten Ennis. His fractured nose began bleeding during the second round.
Philadelphia’s Ennis began brutalizing Villa over the final few rounds and viciously knocked him out with left-right combination in the 10th round. Referee David Fields immediately waved an end to their 12-round fight for Ennis’ IBF interim welterweight title as soon as Villa fell to the canvas from the abovementioned combination.
Villa (26-2, 24 KOs) suffered the first knockout defeat of his eight-year professional career. His only previous loss was a 12-round, split-decision defeat to Mexico’s Marcos Villasana (then 23-6) in April 2019.
The courageous contender demanded to face Ennis after Villa upset previously undefeated Rashidi Ellis (24-1, 15 KOs) by majority decision in his prior appearance, a 12-rounder January 7 at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. Like most of Ennis’ opponents, though, an aggressive Villa couldn’t handle his speed, power, versatility and athleticism in their “Showtime Championship Boxing” main event at Boardwalk Hall’s Adrian Phillips Theater.
All three judges – Lynne Carter (88-83), Mark Consentino (89-82) and John McKaie (89-82) – had Ennis in front by large margins entering the 10th round.
“I knew it would be a very tough fight,” Lewkowicz said. “[Villa] proved that he really wanted the fight. He took that punishment. He’s a tough motherf—– in there. I told him, ‘You can beat everyone in this division, except this kid.’ ”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.