For Jose Valenzuela, better known by his nickname, “Rayo”, and Chris Colbert, the two young veterans of the fight guy will meet at a crossroads, rather early in their careers. Both will be entering off losses, for Valenzuela, he was stopped by Edwin De Los Santos, whereas Colbert lost a 12-round unanimous decision to Hector Luis Garcia, over a year ago.
Now, Colbert will be moving up to lightweight to face Valenzuela in a fight that will seemingly define the trajectory of both fighters immediate future. Whoever takes the loss in this fight will go to the back of the line in the lightweight division, and have to work for some time to get back to this spot.
Valenzuela a stablemate of David Benavidez, nicknamed “The Mexican Monster”, by Mike Tyson, has been training side-by-side of Benavidez for the biggest fight of Benavidez’s career. Now it comes down to redemption. Which fight can rewrite their story and their past failures?
“I wasn’t looking for an easy way out coming in off a loss. I didn’t get here the easy way, so I’m going to keep doing it the hard way,” said Valenzuela. “I’m gonna be bringing in a new set of skills. I’m ready to show the cat-like reflexes. I’ll be on my toes fighting intelligently. I’m gonna be sharp.”
For Colbert, this is the redemption he seeks, as he wants to beat up a fighter with a lot of potentials, as he stated during a media call, as his loss to Hector Luis Garcia, really changed the course of his career. Colbert went from a main event attraction, to now the second fight on the pay-per-view undercard, and seeing the man who beat him, Hector Luis Garcia, fight Gervonta Davis on pay-per-view, January 7th. Colbert looks to be trying to prove a point in this fight.
“I’ll go back down to 130-pounds. I’ve been out for a year, so I wasn’t trying to kill my body to make 130 pounds. Especially when I didn’t have big names to fight there. A lot of people at 135 were calling my name. Valenzuela called my name before on TV, so I have to come give him an early Christmas present,” said Chris Colbert roughly a month ago on a media conference call.“I have to go back down and get my belt. That means going back to beat on [WBA 130-Pound World Champion] Hector Luis Garcia. Then I can come back to lightweight. I have something to prove, and the only way to do that is to beat up someone that people say has a lot of potential.”
