Chris Colbert confident he’ll bounce back against Jose Valenzuela in move to lightweight

Chris Colbert and opponent Jose Valenzuela are both aiming to bounce back from defeat on Saturday, and Colbert will also be moving up to the 135 lb division in his return after 13 months out of the ring.

The 26-year-old Colbert (16-1, 6 KO) suffered a pretty humbling and major upset loss to Hector Luis Garcia the last time we saw him, which came in a Showtime main event in Feb. 2022. Valenzuela (12-1, 8 KO) was stopped inside of three by Edwin De Los Santos last time out in September.

It may not be truly “must-win,” in that yes, there will be more opportunities, but these are two fighters who want to be in the race at 135, and to do that any time soon, a win is needed on Saturday.

As of now, DraftKings have Colbert as a -145 favorite, with Ramos at +115 in the underdog role. By boxing standards, this is basically a dead-even fight on the books.

Bad Left Hook will have live, round-by-round coverage for the full Benavidez vs Plant PPV card on Saturday, March 25, starting at 9 pm ET.

Chris Colbert media workout quotes

“I missed boxing so much. This is what I love to do. This is my life. It just feels good to be back and to be fulfilling one of my dreams. It was always a dream to fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Come Saturday night, that dream is going to come true and I’m going to show up and show out.

“I know that Valenzuela is a great fighter and he’ll be coming to fight, but I ain’t worried about nothing. In my last fight, I didn’t get the decision that I wanted, but everybody knows that I can really fight. Come Saturday night, I’m going to show that.

“I’m coming up in weight, so what fighter is not going to feel good coming up in weight? Saturday night will tell me how I really feel and I’ll see whether or not I can hang at this weight class. I feel like I can. I’ve been in the ring with 155 lbers and it’s nothing to me. I think I’ll be good.

“The time away from the ring just made me realize certain things that I didn’t realize when I was on my high horse because I was undefeated. I was winning and I was making a lot of money and doing things that I had never done before. But that’s never going to stop. I’m always going to be me. Always going to be ‘Primetime.’ I will be victorious.”