Hunter: Khan fighting Collazo was a business decision

By Boxing News - 03/25/2014 - Comments

hunter5By Scott Gilfoid: Trainer Virgil Hunter says that the reason why former WBA welterweight champion Luis Collazo (35-5, 18 KO’s) was picked out for Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) to fight on May 3rd instead of another welterweight in the division was due to it being a “business decision.”

Hunter didn’t reveal what he meant by that, but you can kind of read between the lines that maybe Collazo was seen as an easy mark given that he’s only had one fight against a named opponent [Victor Ortiz] in the past 5 years since his loss to Andre Berto in 2009, and that was against a rusty and depleted Ortiz.

Picking out Collazo to fight rather than someone dangerous like Keith Thurman has to be seen as a business decision, because we’re really talking about Khan fighting an old name in order to get a scalp with a recognizable name. It’s kind of like how Khan fought older and past their best smaller fighters like Marco Antonio Berrera and Julio Diaz. Khan said it himself in the past about him getting guys at the right time of their careers when they’re on the downside.

“It was a good business fight for Amir to fight Luis Collazo,” Hunter said to the Daily Mail. “It gives Amir a chance to shine and prove that he belongs in the ring with Floyd Mayweather. What better place to show that than on the undercard and fight right before his [Mayweather] fight.”

I hear what Hunter is talking about. Get an old guy with one recognizable opponent under his belt in 5 years, and then beat him in front of a large crowd, and immediately start calling out Mayweather.

It’s a brilliant move to have Khan fighting Collazo. The risk is minimal to Khan, because Collazo’s true talent was not shown in the fight against a depleted Ortiz. Perhaps a better example of Collazo’s talent was him getting beaten easily by 35-year-old journeyman Freddy Hernandez in 2011. If you saw that fight then you saw how a fighter with 6 losses in his last 7 fights easily beat Collazo.

Boxing fans that haven’t been following Collazo’s career since his loss to Andre Berto are looking at his win over Ortiz and assuming that he’s a top guy at 147. The reality is Collazo is the same guy that Hernandez easily beat. The only difference is he beat Ortiz, so fans think he’s great rather than looking at Ortiz, who had two back to back losses going into the Collazo fight, and seeing him as a fighter who is showing signs of being past it.

You have to connect the dots when analyzing a fight, and you can’t just look at Collazo’s win over Ortiz and say he’s a great opponent for Khan. You could only say that if Collazo was put in with guys like Keith Thurman, Devon Alexander and Shawn Porter and he did the same thing to them that he did to Ortiz. I don’t think he would though. I suspect we’d see Collazo dominated by those guys in the same way he was by Freddy Hernandez.



Comments are closed.