LAS VEGAS – Looking at the numbers one way, Terrell Gausha carries confidence to his Saturday middleweight showdown against recent top-ranked WBA contender Elijah Garcia.

Cleveland’s Gausha, 24-4-1 (12 KOs), has 189 rounds of pro experience over the 64 rounds that Arizona’s Garcia has compiled.

Gausha is a former U.S. Olympian, a two-time title challenger, and he’s fought four former or current world champions.

Yet, at age 21, Garcia, 16-1 (13 KOs), carries the powerful benefits of youth to the fight, bringing an assertive fighting style that will seek to test if the 37-year-old Gausha can maintain his career-long string of never getting stopped.

“Experience is everything,” Gausha told BoxingScene as he prepares for his bout supporting the main event pitting unified junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora versus Chordale Booker.

“I’ve been through a lot in the game, fought the best – strong fighters, pressure fighters, slick fighters, right-handed, left-handed, with the Olympic experience. It’s a great opportunity for me to show I’m still at the top level.”

The Premier Boxing Champions matchup has the appearance of matching a young lion craving a victory against a gatekeeper.

Garcia is coming off a loss to Kyrone Davis in June, one month after he fell ill while cutting weight for their planned bout. Positioned before that fight as the WBA’s No. 1 contender to champion Erislandy Lara of PBC, Garcia squandered the opportunity and has since dropped to No. 15.

Saying this has been his first “real training camp,” Garcia left training at home and moved to Las Vegas to prepare under respected cornerman Bob Santos.

Gausha is coming off a loss, too, a June 15 unanimous-decision defeat to WBC champion Carlos Adames, who retained his belt February 22 with a draw against Hamzah Sheeraz.

Contrasting Garcia’s turbulent last year, Gausha trainer Manny Robles said his veteran fighter is “always well prepared. His record says it all. He only has a few losses against some of the top fighters in the game.

“He’s never been stopped, never been in a bad fight, never been hurt. That tells you he’s ready. This is just another one where he’s going against a great young fighter, but Terrell has the experience – the experience of fighting the best fighters in the division while Elijah, with all due respect, hasn’t been in that position yet.”

Gausha previously was dealt a 2017 title defeat against Lara, and has been marked by defeats to former champion Tim Tszyu and ex-title challenger Erickson Lubin.

Robles is banking on the premise that his own boxing wisdom will mesh with Gausha’s intellect to produce an effective fight plan that will take Garcia into the later rounds, and win the fight there.

“His experience and his preparation, being able to take Elijah into deep waters and see what he’s got,” Robles said. “At this point of his career, he’s a clean-cut kid – doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, none of the negative things others do in their time off.”

Seeing how Garcia returns from defeat is telling.

“You learn more from your losses than your wins. Terrell can surprise him,” Robles said.

Gausha says he’s approaching the bout as an opening to revive himself, insisting he’s a fresh 37.

“I feel good. I’ve had a lot of good sparring, I don’t take a lot of punishment. I’m ready,” Gausha said. “I take nothing away from Garcia. I took this fight because I know he’s a tough fighter, someone who’s going to push me, and allow me to continue my career toward big fights with a big win.

“I need to beat a guy like him. We both need to put up. We’re going to give the fans a show. I trained for his best – a young, hungry fighter.”

Despite the expectation of how a skilled, fiercely motivated 21-year-old will perform against a 37-year-old whose defeats have piled up, Robles insists his fighter will not perform like a tired version.  

“If I wasn’t honest with myself or my fighter, I wouldn’t be here right now,” the trainer said. “I have no problem telling a fighter it’s time to hang it up, look for something else to do, go home with your family, find a job, go to school.

“But age is just a number. I’ve had to tell fighters far younger than Terrell to hang it up. Maybe they don’t have a chin, maybe they don’t learn or progress, or get hurt in the gym. I have to be the one to say, ‘This is not for you. It’s time to find something else to do.’

“Terrell is not that fighter. He’s not as young as he used to be, but he’s still a running horse and he can give anyone a run for their money and win. He’s that type of fighter and he has experience.”

As he entered a Las Vegas gym for a media workout this week, Robles was asked if Gausha can win, quickly responding, “Absolutely.”

“Because of his preparation. You win fights in the gym. He’s still hungry. He’s a winner,” Robles said.

Gausha reflected on his journey to Saturday’s bout, recalling how he tried to quit as a youth boxer, only to be told by his mother he wasn’t allowed to quit something he committed to. So he returned to the gym, became a 2012 Olympian, met the best around his weight class and now summons the energy once more, seeking to expose the lesser experienced foe.

“The reason I started [was to] get out of the trenches, to be somebody, for my kids, my wife. To be somebody and change the narrative, to show people where I’m from,” Gausha said. “I feel good. I’m ready. I know he’s a young guy. I know I can compete at a high level. I put all my work into this.”   

It’s why he steps right to Garcia after the painful title loss to Adames.

“I don’t like to lose. I’m a competitor and I want to fight the best. I don’t believe in padding my record. I’ll fight everybody. A loss doesn’t define you. How you pick yourself up from a loss defines you.”

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.