See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Joseph Staszewski
Brooklyn Daily
A second-straight upset just wasn’t to be for Brooklyn boxer Luis Collazo.
The Williamsburg welterweight lost a unanimous decision to Englishman Amir Khan, 119–104, 119–104 and 117–106 in the co-main event of the Floyd Mayweather-Marcos Maidona card at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas last Saturday.
Collazo, 33, was coming into the bout off an upset of Victor Ortiz at the Barclay Center in January. Khan, 27, in his first fight at 147-pounds, was the better fighter on this night, despite more than a year layoff.
Khan, who now has his sights set on Mayweather, showed superior hand speed and used well-timed combinations to keep Collazo off balance for most of the fight. While Khan was constantly being backed down by Collazo, he was repeatedly first to the punch.
Khan dropped Collazo for the first of thee knockdowns with a short right hand in the third round. But being knocked down seemed to reinvigorate Collazo. He became more aggressive, but also grew frustrated as Khan kept grappling with Collazo’s head and arm every time he advanced forward.
“I had to hang in there. That’s how we do it,” Collazo said. “His style was really hard. He kept grabbing me and it was difficult. Things happen. We’ll see what happens next.”
Collazo’s best round was the eighth, when he rocked Khan with a big left that sent the former junior welterweight world champion reeling. It was also the bout’s most chaotic frame, as Collazo was deducted a point for a clear low blow, and Khan lost a point for holding.
Khan becoming reluctant to hold allowed Collazo to have more success landing punches, but the momentum of the fight quickly changed in the tenth round. Khan knocked Collazo off his feet twice— the first time with a big right hand and the second came with a left-right combination.
“It was tough because Collazo was very awkward, but we pulled it together and came out with the win,” Khan said. “It was a tough fight to debut at 147 pounds after a 13 month layoff. Not many fighters would take a fight like this. Especially with Collazo coming off of a big knockout win over Victor Ortiz.”
Collazo came into the fight calling it the biggest of his career. The pay-per-view fight is the first of this magnitude for Collazo, a former world champion, since he took on Andre Berto for the World Boxing Council welterweight title in January of 2009.
Collazo will now have to go back into the rest of the division and work his way back up to world championship contention.