WASHINGTON – Roiman Villa’s promoter perceived some nervousness from Rashidi Ellis on Thursday.

Sampson Lewkowicz realizes Ellis is a good boxer, but he doesn’t think the welterweight contender can withstand Villa’s power. Lewkowicz thus predicted that Venezuela’s Villa (25-1, 24 KOs) will knock out Ellis (24-0, 15 KOs) on the Gervonta Davis-Hector Luis Garcia undercard Saturday night at Capital One Arena.

“Trust me, this is the fight of the night,” Lewkowicz told BoxingScene.com following a press conference at the Marriott Marquis. “First of all, [Villa is] much bigger. Rashidi, in the first four, five rounds, he will move a lot. But he cannot run the whole night because it’s a 20-by-20 ring. I predict a knockout.”

The 29-year-old Ellis, of Lynn, Massachusetts, is listed by most sportsbooks as a 6-1 favorite to defeat Villa in their 12-round, 147-pound bout. Nevertheless, Villa has won 92 percent of his bouts by knockout and topped previously undefeated Detroit native Janelson Bocachica (17-1-1, 11 KOs) by unanimous decision in his most recent fight, an eight-rounder Showtime televised September 9 as part of its “ShoBox: The New Generation” series from Bally’s Event Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Villa, who is also 29, dropped Bocachica in the second round, but Bocachica made it to the final bell and ended Villa’s five-fight knockout streak. The heavy-handed Villa still won by big margins on all three scorecards (79-71, 79-71, 78-72).

“He had personal issues,” Lewkowicz said of Villa’s preparation for the Bocachica bout. “And honestly, it was only two weeks of training for Bocachica. Now he trained for seven weeks. That will make a difference. He was a little bit tired, but honestly the referee saved Bocachica from getting knocked out. He took over a minute to pick up the mouthpiece, and he spit out the mouthpiece four times. The deduction of one point was not enough.”

Showtime will televise Ellis-Villa as the second of three undercard bouts once the Davis-Garcia pay-per-view broadcast begins at 9 p.m. ET ($74.99).

Villa has won six consecutive fights since he lost a 12-round split decision to Mexico’s Marcos Villasana, who entered their bout in April 2019 in Los Mochis with a 23-6 record. If Villa can extend his winning streak to seven by beating his most formidable opponent, he’ll have legitimized himself as a welterweight contender.

“I’m not about to be throwing stones out there and I wanna stay humble,” Villa said during the press conference, according to his translator. “But at the same time, I wanna see if that smirk that Rashidi has on his face right now remains after the fight on Saturday night.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.