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By Mitch Abramson - Collazo Considering Retirement?
If Brooklyn’s Luis Collazo doesn’t get the next crack at WBC welter champ, Andre Berto, Collazo might walk away from the sport, he said in a phone interview last week from his training camp in South Carolina.
Currently ranked No 1 in the WBC and No. 2 in the WBA, Collazo was supposed to be Berto’s first mandatory but Steve Forbes got the nod, and now Collazo has been relegated to a tune-up fight most likely Sept. 27 on the undercard of Mosley-Mayorga.
If Collazo doesn't fight Berto next, that could be it for him.
“I may just walk away,” Collazo said. “You wait around so long that it gets stressful. To be honest, the critics never gave me the respect I deserved, but I guess that’s how boxing is. I just want to get another opportunity to do what I do best to get that title back.”
When Berto won the title, he had six months to fight his mandatory, but in between he was able to successfully petition the WBC to fight Forbes, Collazo’s trainer and manager, Nirmal Lorick said.
“I’ve just been patient, staying in the gym,” said Collazo, who was in training camp with Paul Williams for his bout with Carlos Quintana. “Hopefully I get a nice tune-up next month and then I get ready for Berto. He’s young and talented, but right now I’m hungry and he has something that I want.”
There was talk of Collazo meeting Paul Williams earlier this year, but the rematch was made with Quintana, and Collazo, 27, was left without a substantial dance partner.
The WBA, Lorick said, has been promising Collazo that he’ll be a mandatory challenger for the past three years, but boxing politics and injuries have combined to delay those plans. [details]
If Brooklyn’s Luis Collazo doesn’t get the next crack at WBC welter champ, Andre Berto, Collazo might walk away from the sport, he said in a phone interview last week from his training camp in South Carolina.
Currently ranked No 1 in the WBC and No. 2 in the WBA, Collazo was supposed to be Berto’s first mandatory but Steve Forbes got the nod, and now Collazo has been relegated to a tune-up fight most likely Sept. 27 on the undercard of Mosley-Mayorga.
If Collazo doesn't fight Berto next, that could be it for him.
“I may just walk away,” Collazo said. “You wait around so long that it gets stressful. To be honest, the critics never gave me the respect I deserved, but I guess that’s how boxing is. I just want to get another opportunity to do what I do best to get that title back.”
When Berto won the title, he had six months to fight his mandatory, but in between he was able to successfully petition the WBC to fight Forbes, Collazo’s trainer and manager, Nirmal Lorick said.
“I’ve just been patient, staying in the gym,” said Collazo, who was in training camp with Paul Williams for his bout with Carlos Quintana. “Hopefully I get a nice tune-up next month and then I get ready for Berto. He’s young and talented, but right now I’m hungry and he has something that I want.”
There was talk of Collazo meeting Paul Williams earlier this year, but the rematch was made with Quintana, and Collazo, 27, was left without a substantial dance partner.
The WBA, Lorick said, has been promising Collazo that he’ll be a mandatory challenger for the past three years, but boxing politics and injuries have combined to delay those plans. [details]
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