Fighter of the Week (8/21-8/27): Oscar Collazo
On a somewhat eventful weekend of boxing that featured a lot of heavy hitters and a major controversy that could have resulted in a new unified heavyweight champion of the world, but didn't. A weekend that was dominated by the big men, it was the littlest man in action that took home our Fighter of the Week Award, on the overlooked but highly entertaining Golden Boy card From the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan Puerto Rico. WBO Minimumweight champion Oscar Collazzo, who became the quickest Puerto Rican to a world title in history when he destroyed Melvin Jerusalem back in May became the fastest Puerto Rican to defend his Major world title when he stopped an outmatched Garen Diagan, of General Santos City, Philippines in six rounds to move his record to 8-0 (6), make his first defense a successful one and capture this weeks award.
Battles between southpaws can always be a sloppy, hard-to-watch, snoozefest disaster, Callazo was determined not to make that the case with Daigen. The two lefties were both the aggressive in the early going. Immediately it became evident that the Puerto Rican was going to be rugged and determined but he was in over his head as Collazo ripped right hooks, thudding hooks to the head and body mixed up to perfection that drove Diagen backwards. Those hooks began taking their toll as Collazo began backing his foe into the corner, and the hooks were breaking him down as Diagan became much more stationary as the Puerto Rican teed off on him. At that point, it was no longer a question of if, but rather a question of when. As the sixth round ended, the Filipino went back to his corner, it looked like it was the beginning of the end, rather it ended up just being the end, as he refused to come out and answer the bell for the seventh round, making Collazo first defense of his WBO belt a successful one as he moved his record to 8-0(6).
Collazo, who won our Prospect of the Month Award earlier this year, is now making a claim for Fighter of the Year and to be on Pound for Pound lists everywhere. It's been a quick rise to the top and stardom. However, Collazo is determined to have his name alongside "Iron Boy" Ivan Calderon as not only one of the best Puerto Rican little men but as one of the best Puerto Rican fighters and little men in the history of the sport period. In just eight fights, Calderon has put the boxing world on notice, and from the 105-pound minimum division, that's a hard thing to do. The ultimate goal would be to jump up to 112-pound to fight Bam Rodriguez after Rodriguez destroys Sunny Edwards later this year. In the interim Collazo will likely fight again, and there are some smaller names that could still make for an interesting fight. The WBC champ is a Thai fighter by the name of Petchmanee CP Freshmart, as well as the other two big names, in the division, the brothers from Japan Yudai Shigeoka, who will fight CP Freshmart in October and his brother and Ginjiro Shigeoka, who will fight for the IBF 105-pound belt on the same date.
