HECTOR GARCIA DROPS, SHOCKS CHRIS COLBERT TO EARN DECISION VICTORY HEADLINING LIVE ON SHOWTIME
performed like the world champion he was substituting for on Saturday
night, battering and dropping the highly touted *Chris Colbert *to earn a
unanimous decision in a 12-round WBA Super Featherweight World Title
Eliminator that headlined a thrilling tripleheader live on SHOWTIME in a
Premier Boxing Champions event from The Chelsea inside The Cosmopolitan of
Las Vegas.Garcia (15-0, 10 KOs) stepped in for the WBA Super Featherweight World
Champion Roger Gutierrez less than three weeks ago after Gutierrez was
forced to withdraw due to a positive COVID-19 test. Despite having little
time to prepare, the southpaw Garcia used his height and powerful left hand
to dominate Colbert (16-1, 6 KOs) by scores of 118-109, 118-109 and
119-108.
“I have to thank everyone in my corner, Ismael Salas and Bob Santos, and
everyone that worked with me,” said Garcia. “I feel great. I definitely
knew three weeks ago that my life would change. My trainers gave me the
confidence to win this fight.”
“I’m sorry I let everyone down, today he was the better man,” Colbert said
afterward, his arm draped around Garcia in an encouraging embrace. “I take
my losses like I take my wins. I want to run it back and hopefully we can
do it again. There’s no excuses. He was the better man today.”
Garcia was the aggressor throughout, dropping Colbert for the first time in
his career with a counter left in the seventh round that caused Colbert to
fall backwards, his legs flying up in the air from the momentum. Colbert
got to his feet, but Garcia jumped on him again, stalking him around the
ring.
“In the ninth and 10th rounds I hit him so hard,” said Garcia. “I knew I
had him. I knew he wasn’t going to be able to box anymore.”
Colbert could never get on track and showed little of the aggression and
skills that made him one of the most talked about young fighters in the
sport.
“Everyone puts pressure on me in the ring,” said Colbert. “That’s nothing
new. I want to get a rematch if I can. Congratulations to Hector and his
team. They deserved this win tonight. I wasn’t feeling myself. At the end
the day, I’m still ‘Primetime’ on SHOWTIME.”
In the end it was Garcia, a 2016 Dominican Olympian, who performed like the
favored fighter, punishing Colbert and pushing him back and potentially
earning a title shot against Gutierrez.
“I want to fight Gutierrez for the world championship,” Garcia said. “I
worked too hard to get into this position today.”
A former valedictorian of his high school, *Gary Antuanne Russell *(15-0,
15 KOs) passed the biggest test of his career with flying colors, stopping
the former world champion *Viktor Postol *(31-4, 12 KOs) abruptly in the
tenth and final round of their super lightweight bout in the SHOWTIME
co-main event.
After pushing the action for most of the fight, Russell hurt Postol with a
left uppercut in the tenth and followed up with a series of lefts and
rights. With Postol against the ropes absorbing combinations, referee Mike
Ortega intervened and waived it off at 2:31 of the tenth, much to Postol’s
surprise, who shrugged his shoulders and seemed miffed at the stoppage.
Russell kept his knockout streak alive while Postol dropped his second
straight contest.
Russell was a 2016 U.S. Olympian who owned a 3-1 amateur record over
current unbeaten welterweight Jaron Ennis, and he fought like one of the
top contenders at 140 pounds on Saturday.
“The performance speaks for itself,” said Russell. “You see (Postol) went
the distance with Terence Crawford, and I just stopped him. I believe I’m
ready for another step-up fight.”
The two embraced in the ring when it was over, the respect between the
fighters on full display. Postol fought on Saturday with his wife and their
twin five-year old sons back home in Brovary, Ukraine in harm’s way with
the Russian military invading the country.
“We’re in the hurt business,” Russell said of whether he felt compassion
for his opponent. “I take my hat off to him. His country is literally at
war but we’re in the squared circle doing our jobs. This man is coming to
hurt him and I’m coming to hurt him.”
And Russell did that repeatedly on Saturday. Gary Russell Jr., the former
titleholder who lost his belt last month, manned the corner on Saturday
with their father Gary Sr. relegated to ringside for health reasons, and he
told his younger brother to “break the will” of Postol throughout the bout.
Russell obliged, fighting aggressively and continuously pinning Postol
against the ropes.
Postol had some success with his right hand and his jab, especially in the
ninth when he landed a thudding right , but Russell showed a granite chin
and countered effectively and in the tenth he landed crisp combinations,
showcasing his hand speed, leading to the stoppage, the first time Postol
had ever been stopped. Russell led on the scorecards at the time of the
stoppage by scores of 89-82, 89-82 and 88-83.
“I just couldn’t do what I wanted to do in the ring,” said Postol. “My legs
were not there and my arms were not there like I needed them to be. I’ve
fought much better fighters than Gary Russell, but for some reason I wasn’t
able to perform to my abilities. I came here to win tonight. Unfortunately
I wasn’t able to achieve my goal.”
With his promoter, the former two-division champion Marcos Maidana urging
him on from ringside, Argentina’s *Fernando Martinez *punished *Jerwin
Ancajas *over 12 rounds to wrest away his IBF junior bantamweight title via
a unanimous decision in a star-making performance in the SHOWTIME telecast
opener.
After exchanging hugs, handshakes and pleasantries during the final press
conference on Thursday, Martinez (14-0, 8 KOs) and Ancajas (33-2-2, 22 KOs)
dispensed with the niceness and engaged in an action-packed thriller.
But it was Martinez, a fan of Mike Tyson growing up, who delivered the
heaviest blows, squaring up to Ancajas and winging lefts and rights to win
by scores of 117-11, 118-110 and 118-110.
Martinez, whose father died while he was in the amateurs and helped
introduce him to boxing, fought back tears as he expressed what the win
meant to him.
“This moment is so special to me,” said Martinez. “It hurts so much that my
father’s not here for this great moment in my life, but I know that he
oversaw this. I’m so happy for my corner and for the people who supported
me over the years. I want to thank SHOWTIME for their support. I want to
thank Jerwin for giving me this opportunity. I am so thankful for this.”
Martinez landed 421 power shots , a new division record and 427 total
punches, forcing Ancajas to be taken to the hospital as a precaution
following the match.
“I am so thankful for team Martinez to give me this opportunity to make
this fight,” Ancajas said. “Yes, I want the rematch and I’ll do everything
to achieve my goal. I learned a lot in this fight and he’s a great
challenger.”
The two continuously walked through hellacious punches throughout the
action. But it was Martinez who hurt Ancajas more than the champion and in
between the ninth and tenth rounds, Ancajas’ corner was asking him if he
was okay to continue. Ancajas responded by buckling Martinez in the 10th round
with a right hand, and he buzzed Martinez again with a straight left only
for Martinez to fire back with roundhouse punches of his own in a snapshot
of the non-stop action that took place.
The event was promoted by TGB Promotions. The SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING
tripleheader will re-air on Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET/PT on SHOWTIME EXTREME.
Veteran sportscaster *Brian Custer* hosted the SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING
telecast while versatile combat sports voice *Mauro Ranallo* handled
blow-by-blow action alongside Hall of Fame analyst *Al** Bernstein* and
three-division world champion *Abner** Mares*. Three Hall of Famers rounded
out the SHOWTIME telecast team – Emmy® Award-winning reporter *Jim Gray*,
unofficial scorer *Steve Farhood* and world-renowned ring announcer *Jimmy
Lennon Jr.* The executive producer was four-time Emmy award winner *David
Dinkins, Jr.* Saturday’s telecast was produced by *Ray Smaltz III* and the
director was *Bob Dunphy*, son of legendary Hall of Famer Don Dunphy.
Former junior middleweight world champion *Raúl “El Diamante” Marquez* and
sportscaster *Alejandro Luna* served as expert analysts in Spanish on
Secondary Audio Programming (SAP).
