Whatever the result of her bout on Wednesday, 4:18 a.m. (Manila time), Aira Villegas will be coming home to the Philippines as an Olympic medalist.
Already assured of a bronze, the Filipina southpaw will be gunning for a final spot when she takes on Buse Naz Çakıroğlu of Turkey in the semifinals.
Another win by Villegas will guarantee her a silver, with a chance to fight for the gold medal.
Villegas will get the opportunity of a lifetime to fight at the famed Stade Roland Garros, where the boxing events will be held beginning in the semifinals.
The boxing preliminary rounds were held at the Paris Nord Villepinte in Villepinte. The Stade Roland Garros is a complex of stadiums and tennis courts where the French Open is played.
Standing across the ring from Villegas when the bell rings to signal the start of the fight will be the toughest opponent she will face in this competition.
Çakıroğlu is widely considered the top women’s flyweight in the world.
She has cruised through the competition thus far in Paris, blasting Fatima Herrera of Mexico in the Round of 16 and Pihla Kaivo-oja of Finland in the quarterfinals by unanimous decisions.
This kind of dominant showing is nothing new to Çakıroğlu.
She nabbed the gold medal in the light flyweight division of the 2022 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships by winning all five of her bouts by 5-0 decisions.
Among those she beat on her way to the title was Villegas in the quarterfinals.
The 28-year-old Çakıroğlu is one of the most decorated boxers in the world, regardless of weight class.
Before becoming the world light flyweight champion in 2022, she bagged a silver in the flyweight division of the 2019 AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championships.
She prevailed in the semifinals over the legendary Indian boxer Mary Kom, the only woman to win the world championships six times. Çakıroğlu lost to Liliya Tagirovna of Russia in the finals.
During the Tokyo Olympics, Çakıroğlu went home with a silver after falling short in the finals to two-time world championships bantamweight silver medalist Stoyka Krasteva of Bulgaria.
Çakıroğlu is also a three-time European Championships winner and a two-time European Games gold medalist.
The International Boxing Association (IBA) has Çakıroğlu as No. 1 in the flyweight world rankings. Villegas is 20th among flyweights in the IBA world rankings.
Villegas has gone undefeated in 10 fights in 2024. Çakıroğlu has been on an even more impressive streak, winning her last 20 fights.
The last time she tasted defeat was in February 2022 in the Strandja Memorial Tournament when she dropped a majority decision to world No. 9 and two-time world championships gold medalist Nikhat Zareen of India.
The semifinal encounter between Villegas and Çakıroğlu will be a battle between two southpaws who have won their bouts in Paris using quite similar fighting styles.
The Filipina has proven to be an elusive target, constantly moving side to side, then springing to action by stinging her foes with her hard counters.
The Turkish fighter prefers to stay in the middle of the ring and does not move a lot.
She employs one of the stiffest right jabs in women’s boxing to keep her opponents at bay and prefers to lie in wait rather than to initiate the action. But when she does engage, she hurts opponents with her accurate combinations, showing why she is tabbed as one of the best counterpunchers in the game.
At 5-foot-4 1/2, Çakıroğlu will enjoy a height and reach advantage over her Filipina rival.
Villegas has beaten three fancied foes en route to the semifinals in what clearly has been the best tournament of her career.
But there is no bigger scalp to add to her collection of victims than that of the Turkish world No. 1.
The last fight between the two was not even close.
Villegas will be in the fight of her life, and she will need to be at her absolute sharpest against the best flyweight in the world.
