Tonight on the “Latino Night” card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Oscar Collazo put on a superb, almost flawless display as he knocked out long-reigning rival minimumweight champ Knockout CP Freshmart in the seventh round. The two came together in a unification showdown, with Puerto Rico’s Collazo defending his WBO title and Thailand’s Freshmart defending the WBA belt he had held for eight years.
Southpaw Collazo, the younger man by seven years at age 27, dropped Freshmart with a right hook to the head in round six, and he then dropped Freshmart twice more in the following round to get the stoppage win. Time was 1:29 of the seventh, and Collazo is now 11-0(8). Freshmart lost both his belt and his unbeaten record, falling to 25-1(9).
It was a slow-starting fight, but once Collazo got into his groove, he became magnificent. Freshmart had some flashing moments of success, and his body work was quite notable. But Collazo was far sharper, he was far busier, and he was the ring general in there. The action really got going around the fourth and fifth rounds, and Collazo was clearly looking for the KO he had predicted he would get.
Collazo broke through with his right hand in the sixth, his hook chopping Freshmart down. To his credit, Freshmart fired back with power shots after getting up. But Collazo had his man now and he knew it. Dropping Freshmart with another hard right to the head in the seventh, Collazo ended matters with a left uppercut to the chin that was followed by a right to the body. Freshmart had the fight totally knocked out of him.
Collazo, guided by the great Miguel Cotto, who climbed into the ring to congratulate his countryman, said he has shown he is the best 105 pound fighter in the world right now. He may well be. In stopping the long-reigning, never really previously hurt Freshmart in style the way he did, with Collazo perhaps winning every round along the way, Collazo, now the WBO, WBA and Ring Magazine champion, sure made some big, big statement.
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