Hector Garcia appears to have made a full recovery following his first career loss to Gervonta Davis in January of this year. The Dominican fighter will be taking on American former world title challenger Lamont Roach in a 130 lbs bout set to be featured on the undercard of the November 25th event headlined by David Benavidez and Demetrius Andrade.
The match-up between the Dominican Republic’s WBA super featherweight champion Hector Luis Garcia (16-1, 10 KO’s) and American fighter Lamont Roach (23-1-1, 9 KO’s) was mandated by the WBA in March of this year, as Roach was designated the mandatory challenger. This fight will serve as a mandatory defense for Garcia, who last competed in January.
While concerns still exist regarding Garcia’s health, as he mentioned in an interview earlier this year that he was still experiencing lingering effects from his bout against Gervonta Davis (29-0, 27 KO’s), failing to comply with the WBA’s mandate would likely have resulted in the forfeiture of his WBA super featherweight title.
The WBA’s decision to mandate this fight was partly due to Hector Garcia moving up to the lightweight division to face Davis, thereby delaying his obligation to defend his title in his own weight class, whether against a voluntary or mandatory challenger. Having voluntarily moved up in weight after winning the WBA super featherweight title in August of 2022, he was naturally ordered to face a mandatory challenger for not defending his title within his division.
Lamont Roach earned the opportunity to challenge Garcia for the world title after defeating 130 lbs contenders Rene Alvarado (33-14, 12 KO’s) in 2021 and Angel Rodriguez (21-3, 11 KO’s) in 2022. These victories propelled him up the WBA’s rankings. This will be Roach’s second world title fight, following his first career loss to Jamel Herring in 2019, when Herring held the WBO super featherweight title.
It’s worth noting that Roach has been relatively inactive over the past year, with his last fight taking place in July 2022. Given Garcia’s tough loss to Davis in January, Roach’s inactivity may offset any complications that arose in Garcia’s case as he was required to recover over a period of more than nine months following his fight against Gervonta Davis.
