Navarrete drops Villa twice en route to a unanimous victory to capture the WBO featherweight title

Emanuel Navarrete's unorthodox style, swarming offense, reach advantage and pop in his punches were too much for the well schooled Ruben Villa who kissed the canvas two times en route to a 12-round unanimous decision victory by the prolific Mexican fighter and captured his second division world title at the MGM Grand Bubble in Las Vegas Friday night (Saturday in Manila). Scores were 114-112 twice and 115-111 for Navarrete.

Navarrete who snatched the WBO superbantam title from Ghana's Isaac Dogboe in 2018 in sensational fashion and defended it five times before moving up in weight, wasted no time in dropping the Salinas, California native Villa in the first round with a left uppercut. Navarrete followed it up with another knockdown in the 4th round with another left to the jaw of Villa that practically sealed the fight in his favor.

Navarrete drops Villa in the first round.

It appeared it will be a matter of time before Navarrete will stop Villa but the WBO International featherweight champion, showing his tenacity and superior boxing skills, outboxed Navarrete in the latter rounds to make the scorecard closer. Villa's lack of power in his punches however, doomed his comeback as he didn't have the pop to stop Navarrete.

Navarrete, the newly minted WBO featherweight world champion, now improves his record to 32 wins, 1 loss, 27 KOs while Villa suffered his first defeat and dropped to 18 wins, 1 loss with 5 stoppages.