Collazo is the new Winky by Billy Graham

Collazo is the new Winky" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Ant Evans: Ricky Hatton's trainer Billy Graham has put fighters in and around 147lbs on notice - former WBA welterweight champion Luis Collazo is the new Ronald 'Winky' Wright. Graham's superstar charge defeated Collazo on a tight points decision in Boston last weekend but was run very close indeed by the Puerto Rican New Yorker. Now 'the Preacher' is predicting Collazo will be the division's dangerman for years to come and emulate Winky Wright, who has been the bane of the middleweight divisions for years. "That kid is Winky Wright waiting to happen," Graham said upon his return to England. "Collazo's just turned 25, by the time he's 27 no-one will be landing any punches on him just like with Winky Wright. He looks a lovely kid, too, and I hope the performance he gave last week with Ricky has established him as the star he deserves to be. I tell you - give this kid another year and he'll be the new Winky Wright. He's going to give everyone in and around the welterweight division absolute nightmares." "It's no secret that I didn't want the fight," Graham continued. "When I first saw tapes of Collazo I thought 'What a awkward so-and-so' and couldn't understand why he was on the list of opponents HBO would approve. Then I saw some more tapes of Collazo, particularly his fights with Jose Rivera and Miguel Angel Gonzalez, which were wicked fights, all action fights, and I understood just what calibre of a fighter he was. "I always expected a real rough, hard, brutal fight and I made sure Ricky did too. I think Ricky deserves enormous credit for stepping up and taking the whole fight to a kid who was so much bigger than him. Collazo has a wicked, Winky like, defense and a seven inch reach advantage and still my kid landed more punches in the fight. "Ricky is the best junior welterweight in the world and it just so happens he's so good and so brave he can take it to welterweights as well. Collazo was a welterweight when he was a teenager, and is physically much bigger than Ricky, but the sort of fighter I've got overcame all that." Hatton, also, paid tribute to the deposed champion. He said: "I think Collazo's going to come back a better fighter, in fact he might even be an avoided fighter now because he's a lot better than people give him credit for, definitely. "I'm not saying I won't fight Collazo again but, to be honest, I fought Collazo and I beat him. If the opinion is that there are better fighters at welterweight, then I'll stay there and if the better fighters are at light welterweight, then I'll move back down." Hatton pointed out that he is still a natural junior welterweight, albeit one who also holds the WBA welterweight title and a win over a man - Collazo - who holds a win over the reigning junior middleweight champion Jose Antonio Rivera. The three-title world champion said: "I have to thank my strength coach Kerry Kayes because seven weeks before this fight, I was due to meet Juan Lazcano at light welterweight. And then I was fighting Collazo at welterweight, so I had seven weeks to build into a welterweight. If I stay at welterweight, I'll only get better because I'd develop more into the weight. But, I showed that I can cut it, that's the main thing; if a big fight is offered at junior welterweight, I'll come back down but I showed that I can do it at welter as well." Collazo's team have been screaming for a rematch with the Hitman but, while not ruling it out, Hatton's co-promoter Robert Waterman said: "It was a tough, hard fight and was very close but Ricky won. Ricky threw and landed more shots and also scored the only knockdown of the fight. I think it is very disingenuous for anyone to suggest it was a 'robbery'. "As for a rematch, it is a possibility because it will be another great fight but Collazo only won the title on a split decision (from Rivera) and he never gave Rivera a rematch."