Hector Luis Garcia and Lamont Roach finally have a date and a site for their mandated 130-pound title fight.
BoxingScene.com has learned that Garcia will defend his WBA super featherweight crown against Roach on the David Benavidez-Demetrius Andrade undercard November 25 in Las Vegas. Garcia-Roach will be one of three bouts broadcast by Showtime Pay-Per-View before Benavidez and Andrade square off in the 12-round main event at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino’s Michelob ULTRA Arena.
Roach is the WBA’s mandatory challenger for the 130-pound championship Garcia won when the Dominican southpaw out-boxed Venezuela’s Roger Gutierrez and earned a 12-round unanimous decision in August 2022 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The 32-year-old Garcia (16-1, 10 KOs, 3 NC) moved up to the lightweight division for his last fight – a ninth-round, technical-knockout loss to Gervonta Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) on January 7 at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
Roach (23-1-1, 9 KOs) will end a 16-month layoff when he challenges Garcia. The 28-year-old Roach, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, hasn’t fought since his 12-round, unanimous-decision victory over Colombia’s Angel Rodriguez (21-3, 11 KOs) in July 2022 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Tom Brown’s TGB Promotions, the primary promoter for Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions, won a WBA purse bid May 25 to earn the right to put on the Garcia-Roach fight. Brown bid $410,000, 75 percent of which will go to Garcia ($307,500) and 25 percent of which will be paid to Roach ($102,500) in accordance with the WBA’s rules for mandated matches.
The WBA ordered Garcia-Roach on March 20. A purse bid was scheduled once the two sides failed to reach an agreement during their voluntary negotiating period.
In addition to Garcia-Roach, the pay-per-view portion of the Benavidez-Andrade undercard will include WBC middleweight champ Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) and Jose Benavidez Jr. (28-2-1, 19 KOs) in the 12-round co-feature. Houston’s Charlo will end a 29-month layoff when he opposes Phoenix’s Benavidez.
Puerto Rico’s Subriel Matias (19-1, 19 KOs) will also make a mandated defense of his IBF junior welterweight title versus Uzbekistan’s Shohjahon Ergashev (23-0, 20 KOs) on the pay-per-view undercard. Phoenix’s David Benavidez (27-0, 23 KOs) will defend his WBC interim super middleweight title against Andrade (32-0, 19 KOs), a southpaw from Providence, Rhode Island, in Showtime Pay-Per-View’s main event.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.