HOLLYWOOD, Florida – Now that he has the requisite leverage, Hector Luis Garcia can confidently call out fellow world champions.
In fact, the newly crowned WBA super featherweight champion believes he would give the other undefeated, left-handed champion in his division the toughest fight of his career.
“I want to go fight with Shakur Stevenson, try to unify with him,” Garcia told BoxingScene.com after winning his WBA belt from Roger Gutierrez on Saturday night. “If they don’t give me a chance, then I’m gonna do a title defense and then move up next year to 135.”
The Dominican Republic’s Garcia (16-0, 10 KOs, 3 NC) out-classed Venezuela’s Gutierrez (26-4-1, 20 KOs) for most of their 12-round, 130-pound title fight at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The 30-year-old southpaw won by large margins on all three scorecards (118-110, 117-111, 117-111) in the second of three fights Showtime televised as part of the Sergey Lipinets-Omar Figueroa Jr. undercard.
“From the beginning [it was] easy,” Garcia said. “But after that, I thought he was gonna come and, you know, put some pressure on [me]. So, at the end, I didn’t wanna risk nothing. I knew I was winning, so I don’t wanna risk nothing.”
Garcia realizes that beating Stevenson wouldn’t be nearly as easy. The WBC/WBO 130-pound champion has developed into one of the best boxers, pound-for-pound, in the sport.
If the favored Stevenson (18-0, 9 KOs) beats Brazil’s Robson Conceicao (17-1, 8 KOs) on September 23 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, Stevenson could seek to add one of the two titles he needs to become a fully unified champion by facing Garcia. Stevenson, 25, has decisively defeated Jamel Herring by 10th-round technical knockout and then-unbeaten Oscar Valdez by unanimous decision in back-to-back bouts to win the WBO and WBC belts, respectively.
“All of the other [fights] were easy for Shakur,” Garcia said. “I can adapt to his style. We have the same style, so I can adapt to it and make it a good fight, make it an entertaining fight.”
In the bout before he captured Gutierrez’s title, Garcia dropped previously undefeated Chris Colbert (16-1, 6 KOs) in the seventh round on his way to an impressive, dominant points victory February 26 in Las Vegas. With a pair of consecutive, career-changing wins on his record, Garcia believes his diverse set of skills would provide Stevenson with more competition than any of his first 18 professional opponents have offered him.
“I adapt to any style,” Garcia said. “If he comes to fight, I come to fight. If he comes as a technician, I will be a technician.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
