By Eric Flaherty: WBA interim super featherweight champion Chris Colbert (15-0, 6 KOs) says he doesn’t retreat any of the criticism he’s given towards former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder during a recent interview he made this week.
Colbert, 24, has taken a lot of heat from boxing fans for saying that Tyson Fury will “beat on him” and make it look easy when he faces Deontay (42-1-1, 41 KOs) in their trilogy fight next month on July 24th.
Many boxing fans don’t like how Colbert abandoned his fellow American countryman Wilder, siding with Fury to win. Fans also don’t like how Colbert is picking Manny Pacquiao to defeat Errol Spence Jr in their fight on August 21st.
In the eyes of some fans, they feel that Colbert is just abandoning his U.S fighters by going with the foreigners to beat them.
Colbert will be defending his interim WBA 130-lb title this Saturday night against replacement opponent Tugstsogt ‘King Tug’ Nyambayar (12-1, 9 KOs) in the main event on Showtime Boxing at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
Former two-time WBA featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa was Colbert’s originally scheduled opponent, but recently, he had to pull out. Thankfully, the 2012 Olympian King Tug was found quickly to replace Gamboa.
It’s a dangerous fight for Colbert, as King Tug has heavy hands and comes from an impeccable amateur background in Mongolia.
Colbert unconcerned with fallout from Wilder comments
“I’m not even paying attention to it,” said Colbert to Boxing Social about the criticism he’s received about his comments about Deontay Wilder. “It’s just me giving my honest opinion.
“If people don’t like it, there’s nothing I can do. We all seen it for ourselves. We saw what happened in the [Fury vs. Wilder II] fight between him and Tyson Fury.
“We can’t sugarcoat it. I’m not even paying it no mind. I’m just going to continue to do what I do and that’s be me and keep winning,” said Colbert.
“No,” said Colbert when asked if there’s any additional pressure on him this Saturday because of some of his comments he’s made in the media about Deontay wilder and Errol Spence Jr.
“I don’t care what people think. I’ve got a job to do regardless. I think I should start talking more s*** because I gained a lot of followers on Instagram overnight, so I think I should start talking some more s***.
“No, I don’t look for followers. I don’t care for that. That’s what fighters do. They talk s*** so they can get followers. I don’t do that. I’m just being honest.
“You ask me a question in an interview, and I’m going to tell you. They try to make it seem like I was talking s*** about Errol Spence. I wasn’t. They asked me who I think is going to win.
“I think it’s going to be a tremendous fight, but I just think Pacquiao might pull it off. Everybody has got an opinion.
“I don’t think Wilder is going to win [against Fury]. I don’t think Wilder can beat him. He’s got his card,” Colbert said.
Wilder can get the last laugh if he beats Fury on July 24th in their fight on pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s understandable why Colbert is siding with Fury to win the fight, though.
Wilder looked completely lost last time he fought Fury in 2020, and he was never in the fight.
While Wilder has never looked technically proficient inside the ring, against Fury, he looked than ever before.
Everything that Wilder had learned as a professional during his 12-year career up to that point, he seemed to have forgotten on the night.
In that fight, the 6’9″ Fury had many things going for him, chiefly his size and excellent game plan to rough Wilder up on the inside.
Wilder wasn’t ready for the bulked-up 273 lb Fury taking the battle to him from the very start of the contest, and he couldn’t deal with that style of war.
Chris planning on destroying King Tug
“They’re going to watch me because they want to see me lose or they want to see me win,” said Colbert about his fight with King Tug on Saturday.
“Whatever they watch it for, tune in. I love the people that are haters. They call me a hater, but I’m just being honest. Without the haters, you’re not going to make big money.
“On Saturday night expect a dominating performance, a tremendous performance,” Colbert said about his fight against replacement opponent King Tug.
“I don’t plan for it to go the distance. Whatever happens happens, but I know I’m definitely going to be victorious. It won’t be close,” said Colbert about his fight this weekend.
“I was going to stop him,” said Colbert about what he would have done had his fight with his original opponent Yuriorkis Gamboa had taken place.
“I was going in to knock him out cold. So now he [Tugstsogt Nyambayar] has got to be knocked out.
“To be honest, this is a bigger fight opposition-wise, fight-wise. But name-wise, Gamboa is a bigger name. But it don’t matter.
“They both got the same thing. Ten toes, ten fingers. That’s what I’m saying.
“That’s why I wanted him [Gamboa] because he was a better name and I wanted to make a statement that I was going to knock him out cold,” said Colbert.
“I’m going to keep doing what I have to do,” said Colbert about his plans after his fight this weekend against King Tug. “As long as the money is right, we can make it happen.”
This fight could be harder than Colbert expects because he’s facing a guy with power and experience in King Tug.
Colbert is more of a finesse-level fighter rather than a slugger. You can compare Colbert to Tevin Farmer with his punching power and fighting style.
Chris will never be a huge puncher at 130 like Oscar Valdez, and it would be a mistake for him to try. King Tug looked totally overmatched against WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr last year, losing by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision.
However, King Tug landed many heavy shots in that fight, making it competitive at times. Colbert will need a good chin for him to take the punches that King Tug was landing on Russell Jr in their fight.
Colbert picking Pacquiao to beat Spence
“It’s just my opinion. I think Pacquiao can win the fight,” said Chris Colbert to Fighthype in giving his view on Manny’s fight against Errol Spence Jr on August 21.
“I never discredit Errol Spence, so they need to stop putting it out on the air that I’m discrediting him. I never discredited him. I’ve told them that I think it’s [Errol vs. Pacquiao] going to be a tremendous fight.
“I think Errol is a tremendous fighter, and Pacquiao is a tremendous fighter. but I think Pacquiao can win the fight,” said Colbert.
During an interview this week, Colbert criticized Spence, saying he’s a “flat-footed” fighter, and that was one reason he was giving the 42-year-old Pacquiao a shot at winning the fight.
Many boxing fans agree with Colbert about Spence being a slow, flat-footed fighter who has poor movement.
Pacquiao could be a bad style match-up for Spence because he will be all over the ring, attacking from different angles and not standing in front of him.
Josh Taylor can’t beat Tank Davis, says Colbert
“To be honest, Tank looked tremendous this weekend [against Mario Barrios]. I’m no hater.
“There’s no hate in my blood. I thought he did a tremendous job. He [Gervonta Davis] showed the world that he’s got more than what they think he’s got, which is just power.
“He [Tank] got defense, he got speed, he got it all. To be honest, in any weight class besides 130, he can be a unified champion.
“I think at 140, he can definitely unify if they can make that fight happen with [undisputed champion] Josh Taylor because
“I don’t think Taylor can beat him. I think he” knock Taylor out. That guy [Tank Davis] is too explosive.
“And I don’t think Taylor has got the defense for him, and he don’t got the speed and he don’t got the discipline to stick with what he got to do to beat him.
“You got to be disciplined to beat Gervonta Davis. You have to be able to do that main thing for the whole fight for 12 rounds and be smart.
“He don’t got it. A lot of them don’t have that,” said Colbert about his belief that Josh Taylor lacks the discipline to defeat Tank.
It would be interesting to test Colbert’s opinion of Taylor lacking the discipline to beat Tank Davis.
Unfortunately, Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe has already dismissed the notion of Gervonta challenging Josh Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) for his four titles at 140.
Ellerbe says Taylor isn’t well known enough for him to consider matching Tank against him.
Some boxing fans believe Ellerbe is saying is little more than code for ‘Taylor is too good for Tank Davis.’ Ellerbe sounds completely disingenuous when he says he can’t let Gervonta fight Taylor because he’s not well known enough in the U.S.
But then Ellerbe turns around and matches Tank against the obscure secondary WBA 140-lb champion Mario Barrios last Saturday, a fighter that most Americans have never heard of or seen before.
