By: Sean Cross
Last summer, all eyes were on Chris Colbert when he stepped into the ring at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas for a twelve-round junior lightweight bout against Hector Luis Garcia. Here was not only an undefeated fighter, but the man who would face Roger Gutierrez that night for the WBA Junior Lightweight title. Gutierrez, however, was down with Covid, which left Colbert to face the largely unknown Garcia. At first glance, the feud might seem like an easy task for Colbert. But the fight was not easy for the undefeated Colbert. In fact, he lost to Garcia in what turned out to be the biggest upset of 2022.
All eyes will now be on Gervonta “Tank” Davis this weekend during what is supposed to be a multi-part T-list adjustment. If Davis is a student of recent history, he’ll take the match seriously, but his opponent will be none other than Hector Luis Garcia, who beat Colbert a year ago. With a superfight with Ryan Garcia on the horizon, it might be easy for Davis to see this Saturday night fight as no big deal. It shouldn’t be like that.
Davis, who has a thunderous punch and quick punches, is rightly favored to win this weekend’s fight, which will be the main event of the Showtime Pay Per View card. After all, the twenty-eight-year-old, 27-0 Davis will fight in front of his hometown crowd at Washington’s Capitol One Arena, and Davis has made ten title fights in the last six years, defeating the likes of Mario Barrios, Leo Santa Cruz and Yurikis Gamboa. In all that, only two of their 27 wins have gone the distance. In short, Davis is nothing if not a brilliant, dangerous man.
However, 19-0-3 Garcia is also undefeated. And the fight of Chris Colbert showed that the man can rise to the occasion. What’s more, after the Colbert fight, Garcia moved on to win the WBA junior lightweight title six months straight from Roger Gutierrez. Like Davis, Garcia is a southpaw who can be difficult to look good on. Garcia is also experienced enough to strike and hold and effectively cut the ring on an opponent. Perhaps most importantly, Garcia is riding high and clearly believes in himself. Again, he needs to challenge the likes of Davis this weekend.
