Chris Colbert has a new opponent on February 26.

The rising junior lightweight will now face Hector Luis Garcia in a clash of unbeaten contenders, a source confirmed to The Ring Saturday night. Boxing scribe Julius Julianis was the first to break the story.

The 12-round bout will take place at The Cosmpolitan in Las Vegas, Nevada and will headline a three-bout ‘Showtime Championship Boxing’ telecast (9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. PT).

Colbert was originally scheduled to face Roger Gutierrez of Venezuela, but Gutierrez withdrew from the fight earlier this week after testing positive for COVID-19. Garcia was likely a handful of fighters that had been contacted and approved in the event either fighter contacted the virus, as has been the case with previous Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) cards throughout the pandemic.

Gutierrez was scheduled to defend his WBA title against Colbert in a clash between fighters ranked in the top-10 by The Ring. Colbert and Gutierrez are ranked No. 5 and 6, respectively.

In his last bout on July 3, Colbert (16-0, 6 knockouts) defeated Tugstsogt Nyambayar by unanimous decision. In his previous fight in December 2020, Colbert broke down Panama’s Jaime Arboleda before stopping him in round 11.

The 25-year-old from Brooklyn, New York also has wins over Jezzrel Corrales and Miguel Beltran.

Garcia (14-0 2 NC, 10 KOs), who resides in San Juan de la Maguana, Dominican Republic, defeated Isaac Avelar of Mexico by unanimous decision in his last bout on December 18. The victory over Avelar took place almost five months after Garcia stopped Miguel Moreno in round 4.

The 30-year-old also faced an unbeaten fighter in July 2019, defeating Anvar Yunusov by split-decision.

In the co-feature, unbeaten junior welterweight Gary Antuanne Russell (14-0, 14 KOs), a 2016 U.S. Olympian who resides from Capitol Heights, Maryland, will square off against former WBC world titleholder Viktor Postol (31-3, 12 KOs) in a 10-round bout.

Opening the Showtime telecast will be IBF junior bantamweight titleholder Jerwin Ancajas (33-1-2, 22 KOs) of the Philippines defending his IBF junior bantamweight title against Argentina’s Fernando Martinez (13-0, 8 KOs) in a 12-round bout.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing