Chris Colbert will have to fight one more WBA eliminator, as he’ll face Hector Luis Garcia in a Feb. 26 Showtime main event.
Colbert was originally slated to face WBA 130 lb titleholder Roger Gutierrez on that date, but Gutierrez recently withdrew due to COVID.
Colbert (16-0, 6 KO) is a rising contender in the division at age 25, and was last seen in July 2021, when he scored a career-best win over Tugstsogt Nyambayar.
Like Nyambayar, Garcia (14-0, 10 KO) is a former Olympian. Unlike Nyambayar, Garcia was not a silver medalist, and the 30-year-old southpaw is taking a big step up in class here. He fought in December, beating Isaac Avelar, which was maybe his best win to date, and his first outside of his native Dominican Republic.
The WBA 130 lb title situation has been a mess for years, but with Gervonta “Tank” Davis vacating their “super world” title, Gutierrez does stand at this point as the only recognized WBA titlist at the weight, and in all reality, the lineage of that title should have been the recognized one, anyway, since everything to get a “super world” title onto Leo Santa Cruz and then Davis in the first place was nonsense.
At any rate, Colbert and Garcia will fight a 12-round eliminator, with the winner getting the fight with Gutierrez.