{"id":383599,"date":"2026-01-02T13:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T13:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/383599\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T13:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T13:45:08","slug":"oscar-collazo-targets-climb-after-entering-the-rings-pound-for-pound-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/383599\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscar Collazo Targets Climb After Entering The Ring’s Pound-For-Pound Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are no days off for Oscar Collazo<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Ring, WBA and WBO strawweight titleholder has spent the Christmas holidays with his family at Miradero Villalba in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

Although enjoying time in the mountains, relaxing and listening to music, he’s remained steely focused on his career and continued to train.<\/p>\n

During that time, he was given further fuel to motivate him.<\/p>\n

He received news that he’d broken into The Ring’s pound-for-pound list<\/a> and become only the third strawweight on the list, since the legendary Ricardo Lopez and compatriot Ivan Calderon, both of whom are enshrined in the IBHOF.
“I was very surprised and amazed because it was something I wanted really bad,” Collazo (13-0, 10 KOs) told The Ring<\/a>. “One of my achievements is being rated in the pound-for-pound rankings and now we got the opportunity.<\/p>\n

“I feel very happy that people are noticing the lower weight classes and I’m trying to make a difference.”<\/p>\n

While he’s happy to be included at No. 10 in the mythical rankings, he’s also steadfast this is just the beginning.<\/p>\n

“I know I’m going to be top 5 by the end of 2026 because I’m chasing fights to be undisputed,” he said.<\/p>\n

To make that leap, the 28-year-old southpaw would likely have to repeat the win over Melvin Jerusalem<\/a>, who has rebounded from being stopped and losing his WBO title against Collazo in their May 2023 meeting to annex the WBC title.
IBF ruler Pedro Taduran<\/a> would be the final piece of the jigsaw to become undisputed.<\/p>\n

“The last thing we talked about with Jerusalem was fighting in Puerto Rico and it started to get complicated,” he said. “That’s a fight I want or Taduran but the fight that makes sense is Melvin because we’ve got a good background, both coming off good wins.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully we get an agreement. I know the world’s going to be watching that fight. I know his team wanted more time training, they got it, now let’s see if they want to fight in March.”<\/p>\n

Collazo still has work to complete his rise to become the first Ring and undisputed 105-pound champion but also has an eye on his compatriot, Rene Santiago<\/a>, who last month added the WBA junior flyweight title<\/a> to his WBO strap that he won earlier in the year<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Both wins took place in Japan and represented significant upsets. <\/p>\n

“That’s going to be a great matchup, Rene Santiago is my friend and we do camps together,” he said. “He helped me with sparring, I helped him. <\/p>\n

“A lot of Puerto Ricans don’t like to see us fight, but when I finish in my weight, if there’s an opportunity to fight him, I know it’s a big fight. The only way we can make it happen is if we can negotiate a big purse for both of us.”<\/p>\n

Questions and\/or comments can be sent to Anson at elraincoat@live.co.uk and you can follow him on X@AnsonWainwr1ght<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are no days off for Oscar Collazo. The Ring, WBA and WBO strawweight titleholder has spent the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,1151,1144,1150,1149,1142,711,1145,1146,1147,1148,1143,49,48,1156,1155,1138,1136,1137,1153,1139,1135,1157,1152,82,1154,1134,1141,1140],"class_list":{"0":"post-383599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-results","18":"tag-boxing-schedule","19":"tag-boxing-videos","20":"tag-ca","21":"tag-canada","22":"tag-disqualification","23":"tag-draw","24":"tag-fight","25":"tag-fighter","26":"tag-fighter-news","27":"tag-knockout","28":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","29":"tag-ring","30":"tag-ring-magazine","31":"tag-split-decision","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-technical-knockout","34":"tag-the-ring","35":"tag-top-fighters","36":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}