Upsets at the Cosmo as Colbert and Ancajas Lose to Unheralded Foes

‘Showtime’ was at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas tonight with a PBC tripleheader. In the featured bout which was dressed as a WBA Super Featherweight World Title Eliminator, Hector Luis Garcia scored a monster upset with a wide 12-round decision over previously undefeated Chris Colbert. The judges had it 119-108 and 118-109 twice.

Brooklyn’s Colbert, a former USA national amateur champion, 16-0 heading in, was as high as a 30/1 favorite in the online marketplace. For the second straight fight, the man opposing him was a late sub. Garcia, a 30-year-old southpaw from the Dominican Republic, was undefeated (now 15-0) and had a deep amateur background, but he had lost five of his final seven amateur fights and would be without his head trainer Ismael Salas who was with Robeisy Ramirez in Scotland.

Garcia, pinch-hitting for Roger Gutierrez who tested positive for COVID, made a mockery of the odds, winning handily, abetted by the bout’s lone knockdown when he put Colbert on the seat of his pants with a counter left in the seventh round.

Co-Feature

Junior welterweight Gary Antuanne Russell, one of four fighting brothers from Capitol Heights, Maryland, scored his 15^th knockout in as many opportunities at the expense of 38-year-old Viktor Postol (31-4), a solid pro who hadn’t previously been stopped. However, the stoppage by referee Mike Ortega with 29 seconds left in the 10^th and final round, struck most as premature, notwithstanding the fact that Russell, with his superior hand speed, was comfortably ahead on the cards.

A 2016 Olympian who won three out of four from Jaron “Boots” Ennis as an amateur, Russell, by his own immodest assessment, is on the cusp of superstardom. Postol, trained by Freddie Roach, now faces a potentially bigger fight as he returns to the Ukraine where his wife awaits with their 5-year-old twins.

Ancajas

The opening bout on the TV portion of the card produced a major upset when little-known Argentine Fernando Martinez unseated long-reigning IBF world super flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas. Martinez, who advanced to 14-0 (8), was credited with landing 427 punches, a record for the division, and prevailed by scores of 117-111 and 118-110 twice.

Heading in, Ancajas, whose record dipped to 33-2-2, was unbeaten in his last 22 which included nine successful title defenses. A protégé of Marcos Maidana, Martinez, 30, was making his North American debut. His victory spoiled a unification fight between Ancajas and his WBO counterpart Kazuto Ioka. They were scheduled to meet on New Year’s Eve in Japan but the match-up fell victim to COVID-19.

Also…

In an off-TV fight of note, Claudio Marrero of the Dominican Republic improved to 26-5 (18) with an 8-round majority decision over LA-based Ukrainian Viktor Slavinski. The judges had it 78-74, 77-75, and 76-76. Marrero’s signature win was a first-round knockout of previously undefeated Carlos Zambrano in 2017. It was the first pro loss for Slavinski (13-1-1).

Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp / SHOWTIME

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