From 2006 to 2009, while under contract to Don King, Luis Collazo tussled with welterweight standouts Ricky Hatton, Shane Mosley, and Andre Berto. Collazo, who won the WBA welterweight title from Jose Antonio Rivera in 2005, was a headliner. But disagreements with King ended up sidelining him for nearly two years, during which time he began investing in a bread delivery company to pay the bills.
?It hasn?t been easy?life happens, you know?I?m used to it,? Collazo said over the phone last week for his umpteenth interview of the day. Understandably, there was a trace of fatigue in his voice. ?But we?re in a much better place today,? he continued. ?I feel great. A little more than a week? just waiting now.?
Collazo will face PBC linchpin Keith Thurman 21-0 (21), this Saturday on ESPN in his first significant fight since his loss to Amir Khan last year. The fight will take place in Thurman?s home state in Tampa, Florida, at the Sundome. There was a time Collazo didn?t think he would be back in the ring. But Collazo did what boxers do when faced with the question of retirement ? he stayed put, for no other reason than due to that eternally irrational stimulus, motivation.
There is only one reason why Collazo, who signed with Al Haymon last year, has been paired with Thurman: to make the Clearwater upstart look impressive in front of a public grappling with a sport they were first introduced to mere months ago. After two straight bouts that went the distance, the pressure is on Thurman to produce a stoppage worthy of a prime-time slot. If PBC is going to succeed, it will need its KO artists to deliver, and against a fighter past his best, ?One Time? should feel comfortable opening up. Given the long odds going into this fight, many expect to see Thurman dish out the sort of punishment that will effectively end Collazo?s career. Still, Collazo, 34, is looking forward to the challenge.
Last year Collazo, 36-6 (16), notched one of the biggest wins of his career: a second-round knockout over Victor Ortiz in front of his hometown fans at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. His post-fight ritual was indicative of a man who had faced hardship throughout his career. Eschewing the traditional bicep-flexing routine atop the turnbuckle, Collazo instructed his corner to wait before mauling him. He fell to his knees, head touching canvas, and let out a cathartic howl ? part exaltation, part relief. Collazo may have been the B-side in most of his biggest fights to date, but he played his part well and made many of them close and entertaining. He surprised Hatton by roughing him up in the inside and troubled Berto with the same tactics. Asked about the irony of being overlooked and yet still getting high-profile fights, Collazo said: ?I?m grateful and blessed ? with all these big opportunities and these big fights I?ve been in. It doesn?t bother me. I?ve always been underrated. I?m already passionate, doing what I love to do. I?m just grateful for the opportunity.? Sure, the underdog moniker has been a fitting one for Collazo, but it always seemed as though he was only one or two big victories away from relinquishing it.
Defeating Khan could have catapulted Collazo into the welterweight stratosphere. When the final bell rang, however, however, it was bedrock for Collazo, who was outclassed by a fighter (albeit, a more talented one) coming off a 13-month layoff. Though he had his moments, Collazo rarely succeeded in getting close enough to inflict true damage for sustained measures. Instead, Khan, controlling the distance, kept the southpaw at bay with relentless straight rights all night. It wasn?t so much that Collazo lost but that he looked undistinguished and, surprisingly, a little lost in the ring. It was almost as if he had no business being there. ?Luis was not a 100% that night,? Wilson Naranjo, Collazo?s manager, told TCS. ?He thought he was, but he wasn?t.?
In the end, Collazo would watch helplessly as Khan raised his hands in front of his own fans. The ride home that night offered little solace. ?That was tough,? recalls Nirmal Lorick, Collazo?s trainer for 20 years and manager of the Starrett City Boxing Club. ?I told him I didn?t really think we lost that fight. Maybe a draw. On the way home, he cried pretty much all the way. It hurt him, but it hurt me too. For Collazo, it didn?t seem fair. One day, he had one of the best victories of his career, and then the next, it was as if it had never happened. The abrupt swing in momentum was almost too much for him.
?After that fight I had to sit back and see what I was going to do,? Collazo said. ?I had to make changes or else I probably would?ve retired. I needed to sit it out.? So after 6 to 8 months of thinking, Collazo decided he would continue. This time, however, he wanted someone new in his corner. ?Luis reached a point where I didn?t think he was as hungry as I was to stay in the game,? Lorick said over a recent phone conversation. ?So maybe he needed another voice. I even talked to him before the Amir Khan fight. The training wasn?t going the right way and I told him, if we need to get somebody else to step in front of me and help out, I don?t mind. When he wanted to make a change altogether, that was a shock to me, you know what I mean? It hurt, but you move on.? Assistant trainer Willie ?Papo? Vargas, another Starrett City mainstay, assumed the role of head trainer.
The subject is still a tender one for Lorick. He started training Collazo when Collazo was a scrawny, untatted 14-year-old out of pre-gentrified Williamsburg, Brooklyn, back when the neighborhood was an industrial wasteland and the only boutiques on Bedford Avenue were the ones doling out cocaine in bars. He insists, though, that there is no animosity, that ?[Collazo] was just looking after his own career.? Lorick will be rooting for an upset on Saturday, but seemed to convey a sense of realism about his ex-fighter?s chances: ?I don?t want to see him hurt.?
