Tough, tough lucked Collazo ready for another opportunity

Tough, tough lucked Collazo ready for another opportunity

Mark E. Ortega

Leave-it-in-the-ring.com

March 21, 2011

Despite being only thirty years of age, former welterweight champion Luis Collazo of Brooklyn, New York has seen his share of big fight opportunities slip through his hands, more often than not the cause being something out of his control. Despite many questions left unanswered over the course of the 30-year old fighter's nearly eleven year professional career, he has found a way to move on and let the past be the past, focusing all of his efforts on a better tomorrow where he hopes another opportunity to showcase his talents at the upper tier will appear soon.

Collazo [30-4, 15 KOs], a fighter of Puerto Rican descent who will enter the ring April 13^th against unheralded Franklin Gonzalez [13-8, 9 KOs] of the Dominican Republic in Collazo's Brooklyn hometown, is the definition of a hard luck fighter. Usually that label is assigned to those who weren't quite able to find themselves at the right place at the right time in order to earn a big fight or a championship belt. The tricky southpaw has done both of those things. But the circumstances surrounding the savvy veteran's ups and downs are part of what has made him such a humble and thankful guy in a landscape that isn't quite chock full of them.

In his first foray into the national spotlight back in 2002, a young Collazo [14-0 at the time] suffered a controversial third round stoppage defeat at the hands of fringe contender Edwin Cassiani in a headlining bout of an early broadcast of Showtime's ShoBox: The New Generation. The third round saw Collazo tagged by a handful of seemingly brutal shots near the ropes that snapped his head back and sent referee Jay Nady quickly in for the stoppage despite Collazo having his hands up in protection at the time. After the stoppage it was clear that Collazo's legs were okay and he wasn't as bad off as the firepower would have indicated, but the fight was already over.

“It is going to affect my career,” a Collazo that was a week away from reaching his 21^st birthday said immediately after the bout. “This would have opened doors for me. He lands two or three punches and the ref wants to stop the fight.”

“This is boxing, not basketball,” Collazo candidly exclaimed.

Now nearly ten years later, it's the first part of that statement that finds Collazo in comfort these days.

“It's part of boxing,” Collazo would remark on the shady finish to that fight in a phone interview earlier this week. “We tried to get the rematch, didn't dwell on it and moved forward. Everything happens for a reason.”

It's an interesting take from a fighter who has seen more than his fair share of unevenness. Collazo would bounce back from that loss which may have actually aided him in securing a world title fight three years later against Jose Antonio Rivera for his WBA 147-pound strap. Desperate to find an opponent after Thomas Damgaard pulled out with two weeks left, Collazo got the call to jump in on short notice, possibly due to his supposed shakiness.

Collazo would make the most of his opportunity, taking the title from a champion in Rivera who had the benefit of fighting in front of his hometown, not to mention a full training camp. That April bout all but washed away the stigma that had been attached to Collazo since losing to Cassiani three years prior, making his 24^th birthday a few weeks later one of his sweeter ones.

“I'm always in the gym, I am a gym rat,” said Collazo when discussing the Rivera win. “When they called me for the fight, I said, 'Man, I can't turn that down. [That's a] big opportunity, not many people get to fight for a world title.' I was still young, I didn't have to take the fight but opportunities like that don't come around too often.”

What ensued was a wildly entertaining battle that saw Collazo befuddle Rivera with his movement and ring generalship while also engaging the champion in a toe-to-toe battle often enough to keep the crowd on their feet throughout. Collazo built an early lead then had to stave off a late Rivera rally in order to win the WBA title via unanimous decision. It was the kind of win that would normally launch a fighter into the upper tier right away and have the fans buzzing.

Except that unfortunately for Collazo, April 2^nd, 2005 was also the day of the NCAA's Final Four, which prompted Showtime Sports to only air a one bout telecast, choosing instead the cruiserweight unification bout between Jean Marc Mormeck and Wayne Braithwaite instead.

This turned out to be a huge loss for all but those in attendance and later those who were fortunate to hunt down a copy of the fight through other means as it was one of the more compelling bouts of 2005. Though not on the level of a Corrales-Castillo, which would come one month later, it was a bout that saw an underdog overcome against all odds, even when it times it looked as though the challenger would be turned away.

“It was a great fight, and I wish that fight was televised,” Collazo said in recalling his championship win. “I thought that early in the fight I boxed him, but I also banged it out with him. I felt I had to do that, to take away the title from the champ.

“It's one of the best feelings in the world [to win a world title]. You work so hard throughout your career, through the amateurs...to make a dream come true is the best feeling in the world.”

Collazo's welterweight title win would not be seen stateside, and his first defense four months later against Miguel Angel Gonzalez would be buried on the undercard of the Hasim Rahman-Monte Barrett pay-per-view undercard, which was a card that might as well have been forgotten when first announced. Count me as one of the few who insisted on ordering it, but the few that did saw Collazo deliver a dominating performance, stopping the more than fifty fight veteran Gonzalez in eight rounds. Gonzalez had only been stopped once before, at the hands of longtime 140-pound champ Kostya Tszyu.

The Gonzalez masterpiece was Collazo's official coming out party and would earn him a big money fight with a then pound-for-pound entrant Ricky Hatton [40-0 at the time] in the Manchester fighter's first bout outside the confines of his home base in the United Kingdom.

Though he got off to a rough start [Collazo was dropped in the opening round], Collazo bounced back and outboxed Hatton for large stretches and even engaged the reigning 140-pound champion in a slugfest on occasion. The twelfth round saw Collazo really put it on Hatton with a sense of urgency in an attempt to score another upset. This time, Collazo wound up on the wrong side of a close decision, losing unanimously to Hatton and never getting a chance to reclaim his belt in a return bout.

“I thought I outboxed him and was stronger,” Collazo said immediately following the loss. “I thought the guy had to do more than that to take someone's title.”

Collazo's current outlook on that fight? “It's part of boxing.”

Collazo's performance would earn him another shot at the big time, a February 2007 headlining HBO bout against future Hall of Famer Shane Mosley. In that fight, Collazo suffered an injury to his left hand in round three, tearing ligaments and fracturing his thumb. It would be the only time in the meat of Collazo's career that he would suffer a clear defeat. Today's Collazo doesn't seem too shaken by it

.

“It's part of boxing,” Collazo lamented. “You got your ups and downs, you just gotta stay dedicated no matter what happens. You could get hurt, the other fighter could get hurt, you just have to be mentally ready.”

Then of course, his most recent opportunity against an undefeated and ripe for the taking Andre Berto two years ago in a headlining HBO bout. Despite two wins against opponents with a combined record of 24-9-1, Collazo was seemingly handpicked by Berto's management team headed by Al Haymon.

“I think they thought it was an easy fight,” Collazo explained. “I ain't no walk in the park. When you fight me, you're gonna have a fight.”

Collazo gave the fans another exciting fight, one that made Berto actually watchable for once. Collazo lost another close decision, with Bill Clancy's 116-111 scorecard being the joke. It was a fight that as certainly as any, demanded a rematch. But negotiations would not go swimmingly, and Collazo would once again be left out in the cold.

“He didn't want to take the fight, they tried to lowball me a bit,” said Collazo. “Let him move on with his career, I've moved on with mine.”

Collazo did have an interesting take on what Berto has done since then.

“He hasn't fought anyone since me, he's been fighting 140-pounders. That's why he is staying at the level he is at now, why he isn't stepping up to the plate.”

After not being granted an immediate rematch, Collazo looked to get another shot the old-fasioned way, by winning an eliminator against Turkey's Selcuk Aydin. But that fight would never come off and now Collazo is looking to fight at junior middleweight, a weight he says has come easy.

Yet Collazo isn't ruling out a return to 147 if the fight is right.

“I can make 147 no problem, as long as I get four to five weeks.”

At 154, there could are a plethora of names out there for Collazo to look forward to. Who knows, maybe he will find himself picking up the phone a few weeks out to step in much the way he did against Rivera.

“I will be ready for any call, even on two days notice,” claimed Collazo. “I would love to fight Miguel Cotto, a fight I always wanted that never happened. It would be a good fight not only for the Puerto Rican and Latin fans but for boxing fans as well.”

A fight with Cotto could make sense for Madison Square Garden, a place where Cotto does big numbers and is also close to Collazo's upbringing.

It will be interesting to see if Collazo can get another opportunity to prove his merit, first having to get by a gatekeeper level opponent on the April 13^th card promoted by Wilson Naranjo Universal Boxing NY and Salita Promotions. Collazo has done what he needs to do against B-level opposition every time since suffering his first loss. Similarly, he has done what he needs to do against the upper echelon but has just ended up on the wrong side of things.

At thirty-years old, Luis Collazo is definitely still dangerous. It would be interesting to see him in with a Saul Alvarez, Cotto, Kermit Cintron, the names are endless. Either way, he's a tough out. It's all just a matter of hoping he can get up to the plate.