Olympics: Breaking down Aira Villegas’ dominant win

Screenshot courtesy of: One Sports

The gifts keep on piling for Aira Villegas.

Fresh off a down-the-wire victory in the round of 32, the birthday girl scored a unanimous victory against Algeria’s Roumaysa Boualam early Friday morning (Manila time) to clinch a quarterfinal berth in the light flyweight tournament.

Like candles on a cake, the 29-year-old Filipina blew out Boualam on the scorecards as she went flawless in rounds 1 and 3.

Villegas’ most aggressive showing was the opening round, when she clearly threw and landed more punches than Boualam. As the clash of styles unfolded—with Villegas leading from her southpaw stance and Boualam setting up orthodox counters—the Tacloban native constantly got the better of their exchanges.

Late in the first round, Villegas slightly distanced herself and baited Boualam into becoming the aggressor. This strategy carried over into Round 2, which saw the two-time African Games gold medalist miss even more shots. Despite throwing fewer punches, Villegas continued to hit a higher clip.

Both fighters appeared to run out of steam in the closing round, though Boualam had an early burst in the first minute. Try as she might, she could never string together a sequence of haymakers to sway the judges in her favor. For good measure, Villegas landed some parting shots before the final bell.

Their body language before the announcement said it all: a forlorn Boualam who showed no excitement whatsoever while Villegas pumped her fist in excitement.

With her Round of 16 win, Villegas advances to the final eight where she’ll tangle with France’s Wassila Lkhadiri. Against a two-time European bronze medalist and a partisan French crowd, Villegas has a lot on her post-birthday plate this Sunday.