Villanueva stains record with TKO loss to Arroyo

ALA Boxing Gym’s Arthur Villanueva suffered his first career loss after dropping a 10th round technical knockout (TKO) decision against unbeaten McJoe Arroyo of Puerto Rico in their IBF World super flyweight title bout yesterday in El Paso, Texas, USA.
The 26-year-old Villanueva, who is from Bago City, Negros Occidental, dropped his record to 27-1-0 (win-loss-draw) with 14 knockouts victories.
Referee Rafael Ramos stopped the fight at the 2:05 mark of the 10th round at the advice of the rung physician, who thought Villanueva’s cut above his right eyebrow was getting worse.
The previously unbeaten Villanueva got the nasty cut in the 6th round from a clash of heads between the two fighters. He was also deducted a point in that same round for allegedly head butting.
After Ramos stopped the fight, the result went to the scorecards. Arroyo was then declared the winner of the shortened fight after judges scored it 97-92 (John Stewart), 98-91 (Larry Hazzard Jr.) and 98-91 (Levi Martinez) in favor of the still unbeaten Puerto Rican who now has 17 wins with eight knockouts.
Villanueva and his trainer Edito Villamor, however, cried foul about the premature decision of the referee, saying the cut was not even bleeding and that Villanueva was very capable of continuing to fight.
“The referee really favored him (Arroyo) but I did not focus on that because I would just get frustrated. Instead I kept myself busy but I was surprised when they stopped the fight and gave the win to Arroyo,” said Villanueva.
In his Facebook account, Villanueva apologized to his supporters for the loss. “I’m sorry, I failed everyone. I failed to bring home the title.”
But Villanueva thinks he did well and could do better if given the chance for a rematch. “If they give me a rematch, I am very willing to fight again,” he said.
Villamor said Villanueva was actually more aggressive and connected more punches, making the result more questionable. He said Arroyo was just waiting for counter punches.
“I totally disagree with the stoppage because the cut was not bothering Arthur and we stopped the bleeding. The cut was far from Arthur’s eyelid but we can’t do anything about their decision,” Villamor said.
Villanueva’s camp also questioned the referee for not deducting points from Arroyo for excessive clinching and head butts.
This is the second time ALA bets lost in a world-title bout. Last June, Villanueva’s stable mate Milan “El Metodico” Melindo lost to Mexican Javier Mendoza in Mexico for the IBF World light flyweight title.

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