{"id":10816,"date":"2020-03-10T13:51:48","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T20:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.combateamericas.com\/?p=10816"},"modified":"2020-03-10T13:51:48","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T20:51:48","slug":"gifted-whats-next-for-champion-rafa-garcia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/gifted-whats-next-for-champion-rafa-garcia","title":{"rendered":"Gifted: What’s Next for Champion Rafa Garcia?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rafa “Gifted” Garcia<\/strong> (12-0) is dominating the 155 division. \u00a0With victory after victory, no one can say he has not earned his champion status.<\/p>\n

Ranked as #1 in the United States, Mexico and Latin America among the lightweights, Garcia looks to defend his title again, and his on the road to becoming a legend in the promotion and across the world.<\/p>\n

But fighters are always waiting in the wings to take him down. \u00a0Who are his most likely rivals?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Erick \u201cThe Ghost Pepper\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Ghostpepper\"<\/p>\n

“The Ghost Pepper” is Rafa Garcia’s greatest rival in the division. \u00a0Both of them have been raked at the top of the division for a long time.<\/p>\n

Erick “The Ghost Pepper” Gonzalez<\/strong> (12-5) has continuously come in second, from losing to Humberto Bandenay in the final round of the Copa Combate, to losing to Garcia in Combate Americas’ first world lightweight championship.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez did some real damage in his clash with Garcia, and a rematch would be surely be an epic fight. \u00a0But with two important losses, Gonzalez may need a win before he can challenge the champion again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Marco \u201cLa Roca\u201d Elpidio<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Marco<\/p>\n

He’s fought a lot of the big names in Combate Americas, and it may be time for him to take the next step.<\/p>\n

The Mexican Marco “La Roca” Elpidio<\/strong> (9-4-1) is undefeated in his last three lightweight fights, defeating important names such as the currently ranked #4 Ricardo Arreola, Spanish superstar Enrique Marin and Mexican representative in the Copa Combate Jose Luis Verdugo.<\/p>\n

Elpidio is a hard fighter to decipher, but he could have a great fight against Rafa Garcia.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ricardo \u201cEl Loco\u201d Arreola<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If we want action for the next championship fight, Ricardo Arreola<\/strong> (8-7), better known as “El Loco”, is the clear choice.<\/p>\n

Arreola made his promotion debut fighting in an instant classic, defeating the seventh ranked Ivan Perez.<\/p>\n

In his last fight, he defeated the Argentine Emmanuel Rivero by submission, leaving him with a 3\u20131 promotional record, his only defeat was in his fight against Marco Elpidio by split decision.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ser Doble-Campe\u00f3n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Cannetti\"<\/p>\n

It’s perhaps the least likely option, but there is some history to back it up.<\/p>\n

As part of Combate Estrellas, held in April 2018, Garcia faced the dangerous Chase Gibson in a featherweight clash. The Mexican claimed the triumph by majority decision after a real war.<\/p>\n

To be a double-champion, Garcia must challenge the featherweight champion, whose name will be confirmed after the next match between the Argentine Bruno “Aquiles” Cannetti<\/strong> (9-6), who will defend his belt against the challenger Horacio “Punisher” Gutierrez<\/strong> (7-3).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rafa “Gifted” Garcia (12-0) is dominating the 155 division. \u00a0With victory after victory, no one can say he has not earned his champion status. Ranked as #1 in the United States, Mexico and Latin America among the lightweights, Garcia looks to defend his title again, and his on the road to becoming a legend in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":10827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fighters"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combateglobal.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}