By: Sean Crose
All eyes were on Chris Colbert last winter when he stepped inside the ring at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas for a twelve round junior lightweight eliminator against Hector Luis Garcia. Here not only was an undefeated fighter, but a man who was supposed to be facing Roger Gutierrez for the WBA junior lightweight title that night. Gutierrez, however, had come down with Covid, which left Colbert to face the widely unknown Garcia instead. On first sight, the bout may have looked looked as if it would be easy work for Colbert. The bout, however, was most distinctly not easy for the undefeated Colbert. In fact, he ended up losing the match to Garcia in what may well have been the biggest upset of 2022.
Now all eyes will be on Gervonta “Tank” Davis this weekend in what is essentially considered a tuneup bout for the multi-division titlist. If Davis is a student of recent history, he’ll take the match seriously, though, for his opponent will be none other than the same Hector Luis Garcia who bested Colbert less than a year ago. With a superfight with Ryan Garcia on the horizon, it might be easy for Davis to see this Saturday night’s bout as no big deal. That certainly should not be the case.
The thunderously hard punching and fast fisted Davis is rightly favored to win this weekend’s fight, which will be the main event of a Showtime Pay Per View card. After all, the twenty-eight year old, 27-0 Davis will be fighting in front of what is pretty much a hometown crowd at the Capitol One Arena in Washington What’s more, Davis has engaged in ten title fights over the past six years, besting the likes of Mario Barrios, Leo Santa Cruz and Yuriorkis Gamboa. On top of all that, only two of those 27 wins of his have gone the distance. In short, Davis is nothing if not a talented, dangerous man.
Yet the 19-0-3 Garcia is also undefeated. And the Chris Colbert fight showed the guy is able to rise to the occasion. What’s more, after the Colbert fight, Garcia moved on to outright win the WBA junior lightweight title from Roger Gutierrez about six month’s later. Like Davis, Garcia is a southpaw who can be difficult to look good against. Garcia is also experienced enough to hit and hold and effectively cut off the ring on an opponent. Perhaps most importantly, Garcia is riding high and clearly believes in himself. Then again, he’ll need to against the likes of Davis this weekend.