Luis Collazo knocks out Victor Ortiz in two
Luis Collazo (l) lands straight right to Victor Ortiz’s head during their WBA International title fight at the Barclays Center. Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Tonight, Luis Collazo scored a stunning second round stoppage of Victor Ortiz in a battle between former Welterweight title holders at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N. Y.
Not much happened in round one with Ortiz looking to land the big shot while Collazo got in a few nice counters. That all changed in round two. The end came suddenly at 2:59 of the second round when Collazo landed a fully leveraged right cross to Ortiz’s jaw that spun him around and had him headed to his knees. On the canvas, he was counted out by referee Benji Esteves. With the win Collazo of Brooklyn is now 35-5 with 18 knockouts, while Ortiz of Ventura, CA drops to 29-5-2.
(bottom) Luis Collazo celebrates his victory over Victor Ortiz after their Welterweight title bout at the Barclays Center. Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Trainer Henry Ramirez (l) chilling with (l to r) Marcus Watson, Ronnie Shields, Rodney Hunt and Brandon Watson.
Insight from one of the sports’ top trainers, Henry Ramirez: “I will say this, I was shocked when I saw Ortiz was fighting Collazo after such a long layoff. Collazo has never been a tune up fight for anybody. I thought he beat Berto and Hatton.
My birthday was yesterday but I got my gift tonight and that was watching Ortiz get knocked out by Collazo. Let me guess what Victor is going to say, ‘Um, I won round one. Collazo got lucky in round two, but he’s not on my level.’ Lmao (laughing my ass off), congrats to Collazo.”
“No, you didn’t win.” Boxer/color commentator Paulie Malignaggi (l) talks with Victor Ortiz after his loss to Luis Collazo. Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
The other gent on this Barclays Center fight card that you should be familiar with is the undefeated, 24 year-old, southpaw Gary Russell Jr. who fought seven times in California with one of those bouts taking place at the Four Points By Sheraton Hotel in San Diego, a win over Feider Vilorio on January 28, 2011. In Thursday night’s contest he scored a tremendous 4th round stoppage of Miguel Tamayo in their scheduled eight round featherweight match.
(top) Gary Russell Jr. knocks Miguel Tamayo down during their super featherweight fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. (bottom) Russell celebrates his victory with his support group. Photo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
As an amateur, Russell, from Capitol Heights, Maryland, was sensational. The 2005 USA Boxing’s Athlete of the Year award winner has extremely fast hands and controlled the first three rounds by going to the body. Then, in round four, he landed the big overhand right to hurt Tamayo. He followed up with another right to drop Tamayo for the ten count at the 1:04 mark of round four.
With the win Russell improves to 24-0-0 with 14 knockouts while Tamayo, of Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico drops to 15-8-2 with 13 KOs.
(top, right) Melissa X St. Vil sent along a photo of what it’s like in the frozen tundra known as Syracuse, N. Y. (bottom, right) Melissa X St. Vil is with friends at Thursday night’s show. (left) Melissa gets her picture taken with Gary Russell Jr.
