Chris Colbert will get his opportunity to legitimize himself as a 130-pound world champion February 26.

BoxingScene.com has learned that a 12-round bout between Brooklyn’s Colbert and WBA world super featherweight champion Roger Gutierrez will headline a “Showtime Championship Boxing” event that night. The site for the card headlined by Gutierrez-Colbert hadn’t been solidified as of Tuesday afternoon.

Venezuela’s Gutierrez, 32, will make the second defense of a WBA belt he won from Rene Alvarado, whom Gutierrez beat by unanimous decision in their first 12-round fight a year ago at American Airlines Center in Dallas. Gutierrez (26-3-1, 20 KOs) also defeated Nicaragua’s Alvarado (32-11, 21 KOs) by unanimous decision in their 12-round rematch, which took place August 14 at Ford Center at the Star, the Dallas Cowboys’ training facility in Frisco, Texas.

Colbert is the WBA’s number one contender for Gutierrez, who is now its primary 130-pound champion. The WBA previously recognized Gervonta Davis (26-0, 24 KOs) as its “super” champion in the 130-pound division, but the strong southpaw from Baltimore relinquished that title late in August.

Colbert (16-0, 6 KOs) owned the WBA’s interim 130-pound championship until that heavily scrutinized sanctioning organization eliminated its interim championships in the aftermath of the Gabriel Maestre-Mykal Fox scandal.

The 25-year-old Colbert made two defenses of the WBA’s interim 130-pound crown before it was taken from him late in August. Colbert beat Mongolian contender Tugstsogt Nyambayar (12-2, 9 KOs) by unanimous decision in his most recent action, a 12-round fight that headlined a Showtime tripleheader July 3 from Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.

Nyambayar took the Colbert bout on less than two weeks’ notice, once his original opponent, faded former champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (30-4, 18 KOs), withdrew from their bout due to rib and heel injuries. Colbert was perhaps at his best and most entertaining in his previous appearance, an 11th-round stoppage of Panama’s Jaime Arboleda (17-2, 14 KOs) in December 2020 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.