By Manuel Perez: Coming off a narrow disappointing 12-round decision to WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto, former WBA welterweight champion Luis Collazo (29-4, 14 KOs) told Boxing Talk interviewer Ray Campbell Jr. that he’s interested in a fight with Ricky Hatton if Ricky ends up not signing for his fight with Manny Pacquiao on May 2nd.
However, that now seems doubtful since Hatton appears to be going ahead with the fight against Pacquiao at this time. Collazo, 27, is hoping above all to try and get a rematch with Andre Berto, and was promised a to be given a rematch by Lou Dibella, according to Collazo. However, that may happen but there’s no telling when the rematch will take place, for Berto has other big money fight options available to him and he might not want to give Collazo an immediate rematch, even though the fight was an incredibly exciting one for boxing fans to watch.
But then again, almost all of Berto’s fights are remarkably appealing fights to see. Collazo, for his part, felt that he won the fight and should have been given the decision. In that, I’m in agreement with him. I felt that the scores – 116-111, 114-113 and 114-113 – were way off base and tilted to the Berto, the champion.
It’s not surprising, though, because champions often get the benefit of the doubt in any close fight, and in Berto’s case, he’s not just a champion, but an ex Olympian fighter and someone who is arguably the most exciting fighter to watch in the welterweight division at this time. From my perspective, there’s no other welterweight, not Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, or Paul Williams, that can match Berto in terms of overall excitement.
That’s not to suggest that Berto is the best fighter in the division, because he’s clearly not. Indeed, he’s fortunate to have been given the decision over Collazo, but it’s not unusual that Berto was given the nod over Collazo for the reasons I discussed.
Collazo feels that he could beat Berto in a rematch, fueled by better training for the next fight with him. Collazo plans on keeping busy and is not going to stay and wait for fights to come to him in the future. That’s a good thing, because Collazo wasted 11 months after losing a decision to Shane Mosley in February 2007, and didn’t fight until January 2008 when he defeated Edvan Dos Santos Barros by a 10-round decision. Collazo is predicting that Mosley will beat Margarito by a decision tomorrow night.
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