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Ismael Villarreal Has A Plan, “With God’s Help”

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Ismael Villarreal Has A Plan, “With God’s Help”

Bronx will be in the the house in New Hampshire Friday, when 5-0 Ismael Villarreal tries to snag his sixth win as pro, against vet Lenwood Dozier.

The 22 year old middleweight hit New England on Wednesday, to get acclimated, and the Main Events prospect spoke to NYFights about his thoughts on Dozier, what he's learned as a pro and where he sees himself down the near-future line.

“I know my opponent is a veteran since he’s been professional longer than I have and fought against good boxers,” Villarreal told me. Dozier is 10-23-3, and you KNOW that being a road warrior, he deserves to have a few more wins, from occasions where he downed the home town fave but didn't get judge love. “For this fight I was focusing on my condition since I’m fighting six rounds… and working on my jab and foot movement.”

The Bronx boxer turned pro in November 2017–so I was curious, what has he learned, what has really stood out for him in seeing a light bulb go on, since then?

“It has been good so far, no complaints, I learned from each my fights so that’s good for me. And I’m improving with each fight. It’s not about the knockouts always, you have to learn that you are not always going to knock someone out, so you have to learn how to box and win the other way. It’s good to get rounds in because there will be times you will meet a guy you can’t knock out.”

You New England fight fans should know that LeShawn Rodriguez (10-0) is also on the card at Nashua Community College in Nashua, NH, with Boston Boxing Promotions being the presenter of the card. (Hear from LeShawn from his hit on the Everlast “Talkbox” podcast.) Eight bouts are on the slate at this time.

The athlete is of Ecuadorian and Dominican descent, and his pop introduced him to the savage and sweet science when he was a kid.

He came off a steady as she goes sort, and isn't getting out ahead of himself. When I asked where he saw himself in two years, he said, “That’s a great question, I don’t know where I will be, life is full of surprises but we will see in two years.”

Hmm, maybe with a strap around your waist?

“That’s the plan with God's help!”

Founder/editor Michael Woods got addicted to boxing in 1990, when Buster Douglas shocked the world with his demolition of the then-impregnable Mike Tyson. The Brooklyn-based journalist has covered the sport since for ESPN The Magazine, ESPN.com, Bad Left Hook and RING. His journalism career started with NY Newsday in 1999. Michael Woods is also an accomplished blow by blow and color man, having done work for Top Rank, DiBella Entertainment, EPIX, and for Facebook Fightnight Live, since 2017.