Ruben Villa IV won 15 national tournaments as an amateur and beat Shakur Stevenson twice during the run-up to the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials. This 21-year-old phenom has mostly stayed under the radar through his first 16 fights -- all victories -- but boxing insiders know the score: RV4 is the truth.
Villa and his entire team -- trainers Max and Sam Garcia, and strategist Dean Familton -- take us inside their grueling training camp at Robert Garcia's gym in Riverside, Calif., for an inside peek at their preparations for RV4's Sept. 20 showcase against another unbeaten hotshot, Enrique Vivas (17-0). They also unpack the talent-laden 126-pound weight division and plans for the future.
Before our in-depth interview with RV4, we hear from British correspondent Paul McLaughlin, who dishes on the controversial ending to Charlie Williams' fight two weekends ago, the Joshua-Ruiz rematch, and Chris Eubank Jr's escalating war of words with Billy Joe Saunders.
And we lead off with predictions on the outcomes of the 10 biggest fights still remaining in 2019 from expert analyst John J. Raspanti.
Dennis Taylor is host of The Ringside Boxing Show, editor-publisher of www.ringsideboxingshow.com, and co-author (with John J. Raspanti) of "Intimate Warfare: The True Story of the Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward Boxing Trilogy," an Amazon bestseller.