Washington – Laborious-hitting Roiman Villa (26-1, 24 KOs) storm again on the scorecards by dropping the beforehand unbeaten Rashidi Ellis (24-1, 15 KOs) twice within the twelfth and last spherical to win an exhilarating majority resolution of their IBF welterweight title eliminator. One decide scored the combat 113-113, however was overruled by two 114-112 tallies in favor of Villa.
Down on two playing cards getting into the ultimate spherical, a relentless Villa broke by means of towards a tiring Ellis and landed a bruising left hook that despatched Ellis down early within the twelfth. Ellis labored valiantly to remain on his ft and see the ultimate bell, however suffered a second knockdown with 30 seconds left within the combat.
“He was a tricky fighter,” stated Villa. “He moved quite a bit. He does hit arduous. The primary couple rounds I used to be a bit of tight however then I obtained unfastened. I used to be on high of him from the primary spherical. I do know that fighters resembling him who’re fast ultimately will get a bit of drained and that’s what I took benefit of.”
After Ellis received the primary 5 rounds on all three playing cards, Villa started to achieve momentum by means of the center frames and swept the ultimate 4, together with the fight-changing twelfth. Whereas Ellis out-jabbed Villa by a staggering 164 to 13 margin, the facility punch disparity was simply 103 to 101 in favor of Ellis. In spherical 9 by means of 12, Villa held a 58 to 24 lead in energy punches landed.
The bout was contested at shut quarters all through, with Villa urgent the motion whereas Ellis was content material to sit down again and fireplace counters. Included in these counters have been a constant effort to focus on Villa’s physique, as he held a 53 to 10 edge in physique pictures.
“My nook advised me to knock him down within the twelfth spherical,” stated Villa. “I couldn’t do it on the primary strive however I stored going. I believed he simply fell on the final knockdown so I wasn’t certain if it was a knockdown. But when they need the rematch we’ll give them the rematch.”