Oscar Collazo holds the WBO world minimumweight belt on his shoulder poses with Golden Boy Promotions top honcho Oscar Dela Hoya. | Photo from WBO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Oscar Collazo makes history for becoming the first Puerto Rican boxer to become a world champion in less than 10 fights at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California on Sunday, May 28 (May 27 U.S. time).
Collazo became world champion in the expense of Cebu-based Melvin Jerusalem, who was the defending World Boxing Organization (WBO) world minimumweight champion.
TKOed in 7th round
Jerusalem held the world title for five months, but lost to the more skilled Puerto Rican in his first title defense via a seventh round technical knockout.
Jerusalem decided not to continue during the break after the seventh round, after a lopsided outing by the Puerto Rican in the previous rounds.
With the title in his hands, Collazo is the fastest boxer in history to become a world champion. He has seven wins and five knockouts.
Meanwhile, Jerusalem dropped to 20-3 (win-loss) record with 12 knockouts in his first title defense and first bout in the United States.
Despite the loss, Jerusalem didn’t give up the title that easy.
How the fight went
In the first three rounds, Jerusalem started out strong by landing combinations and dictated the pace of the bout.
That continued in the fourth to the fifth round, but Collazo started to increase his punch volume and started to land his counter punches, especially his jabs to the head and body more frequent.
In the sixth round, Collazo displayed speed, accuracy, and power that completely shifted the fight’s momentum.
He dominated the round with his sharp jabs and accurate counter punches, while Jerusalem was forced to defend himself while getting pounded.
How it ended
After landing his punches, Collazo either steps back or blocked Jerusalem’s punches, frustrating the latter.
Collazo sneaked a left straight in the same round that wobbled Jerusalem, but the latter survived the onslaught.
Sensing victory, Collazo came out in the seventh round with all of his firepower, pounding Jerusalem with combinations with the majority of those punches found its target.
Jerusalem held on in the seventh round, despite getting battered by Collazo’s accurate punches.
During the break, the referee approached Jerusalem’s corner asking them if they want to continue the bout.
However, Jerusalem and his team decided to end the bout, for safety purposes, ending his reign as a world champion.
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