Can Steve Garcia Put the Featherweight Division on Notice or Will This Be Too Big of a Jump in Competition?
After getting knocked out in 2022 by Maheshate, Steve Garcia has been on an absolute heater, winning his last five fights all by way of knockout. He finally gets his opportunity to get ranked in the top 15 of the Featherweight Division. Garcia is taking on the preliminary striker Calvin Kattar, who has not won a fight in three years. He is on a four-fight winning streak, but the experience and level of competition in this matchup will determine the outcome. Can Garcia continue his warpath and be the first person to finish Kattar or will the experience of Kattar be too much for Garcia to overcome?
Steve Garcia’s confidence is at an all-time high. He likes to move forward and throw big strikes that either knock you out or use those big motions to set up his takedowns. His boxing is solid with big power, decent speed, and overall solid movement. He is going to keep Kattar on the back foot in this matchup and will find it harder than he most likely expects to be able to finish him. In doing so he will use those big movements to set up his takedowns, which has been Kattar's Achilles heel throughout his entire career. If this fight gets to the ground, he will be able to unleash serious ground and pound to be able to win this fight on the scorecards. He has momentum and youth on his side so he is not going to break as easily as Kattar will. If he can get ahead, he will most likely stay ahead as Kattar has shown little urgency in his last fights and has almost conceded defeat in some of those losses.
Calvin Kattar at one point was looked at as one of if not the best boxer in the entire UFC. He had an opportunity to secure himself a title shot in 2021 as he took on Max Holloway. He was dominated in that fight, but showed so much heart and grit not to get knocked down or quit at any moment in that fight. He came back the next year and put the same level of dominance on Giga Chikadze. Kattar’s boxing is crisp and sharp and he has great timing. He is extremely accurate and could use Garcia’s aggressiveness to counter him with elbows or straight shots. His takedown defense is listed at 77% so he does have the ability to stuff takedowns, but when he does, it usually wears on his gas tank, and he isn’t as aggressive. He has fought the best the Featherweight Division has to offer and could use all those hard-fought fights and wars to benefit him in this fight. He withered and accepted defeat in his last few fights, and if he doesn’t change his mindset going into this fight, he is going to fall behind and not be able to climb out. At 37 years old, he may have one more special fight left in him, and this is the perfect matchup to pull that out. He cuts angles better than anyone and could catch Garcia coming in if he overextends and gets too wild. It’s going to come down to the level of motivation Kattar has coming into this fight if he truly wants to win, he has all the skills to pull it off and keep himself in the top 15.
With Alexander Volkanovski reclaiming the Featherweight Championship at UFC 314 against Diego Lopes, he will be looking for new challengers in a division he has almost cleared out. Both of these fighters have not yet fought Volkanovski and can put themselves in a great position for a high-level opportunity with a big-time performance in this match. Whichever way this fight goes, it’s going to be a striking clash between two efficient boxers. You don’t want to miss it and all the other action this Saturday, July 12, for UFC Fight Night: Derrick Lewis vs. Tallison Teixeira with a main card start time of 9:00 p.m.
