Hector Garcia entered his bout against Chris Colbert as an 18-1 underdog on just two and a half weeks notice.
And then the late replacement proceeded to make the most of his opportunity with plenty at stake. Garcia used a seventh-round knockdown to help power his way toward a dominating unanimous decision upset victory over Colbert on Saturday night in their WBA super featherweight world title eliminator. Judges at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas scored it 118-109, 118-109 and 119-108 all in favor of Garcia, who improved to 15-0 and is now in line to get a crack at WBA super featherweight world champion Roger Gutierrez.
From the opening bell, Garcia showed a greater sense of urgency than the previously-unbeaten Colbert. That urgency translated into a higher punching volume, which the Dominican fighter used to chase Colbert around the ring with. The constant pressure had Garcia reaching paydirt in the seventh round when he blasted Colbert with a counter left hook that the Brooklyn, New York fighter never saw.
Garcia continued to swarm Colbert over the next five rounds. When Garcia wasn't lunging forward with a barrage of quick punches, Colbert was inexplicably resting his back on the ropes without showing any urgency of his own as the unanimous decision in favor of the underdog more than took shape.
"In the ninth or tenth round, I can't recall the round, but I hit him so hard and after that I knew I had him and he wasn't going to be a boxer anymore," Garcia told Showtime of the pressure he continued to press Colbert with following the knockdown.
Garcia added: "I worked too hard to get in this position today, so I definitely want to fight Gutierrez."
Although Colbert drew boos for getting on his bicycle around the ring over the final two rounds in survival mode, he didn't make any excuses.
"I'm going to take my losses the way I take my wins," said Colbert (16-1, 6 KOs) who suffered his first pro defeat. "He was the better man tonight. Let's run it back."
Regarding his playing it safe over the last two rounds, Colbert offered: "I wasn't feeling like myself tonight. I wasn't going to go in there, do nothing stupid and get caught with no dumb shots."
Here's how the Colbert-Garcia main card went.