Sammy Vasquez may be an Iraq War veteran but it was he an Luis Collazo who went to war last night on PBC.
Returning to the ring last night after a 17 month lay off Collazo looked to be the aggressor and assert himself against the much younger and fresher Sammy Vasquez.
Vasquez, who only suffered one defeat and had never been stopped in his career up until this point was a heavy favourite with many going into the bout, with many writing Luis Collazo off after a disappointing performance against Keith Thurman last time out and an embarrassment of epic proportions against Amir Khan several months prior.
In a thoroughly entertaining, back and forth affair both men landed shots with considerable power throughout the night:
(Credit and hat tip: PBC YouTube)
Vasquez was looking to keep Collazo at bay with his snapping jab as much as possible, but Collazo managed to find his was into the inside on too many occasions.
By the third round both men were marked up and it was pretty clear the scorecards had been made redundant.
As Vasquez threw himself into his attack in the corner, Collazo would counter with a one-two combo which dropped the younger man.
He would recover and the fight would continue in a similar fashion until the sixth round.
Once again on the inside the pair began to trade but it would be Collazo who landed a monster right to the temple of Vasquez sending him crashing to the canvas, virtually motionless, before the referee ended the night early.
Once the proper announcements and celebrations were over a now revitalized Collazo was quick to look to the future.
Full of confidence, he threw out the name of Shawn Porter as a potential next opponent.
Six months ago you might have called a Collazo/Porter clash a major mismatch and with good reason.
However, after a very impressive KO victory over a much younger man can Collazo really be denied the bigger fights at welterweight?
Here’s hoping these two eventually share a ring and put on one hell of a show.
