(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Scott Gilfoid: #2 WBA, #8 WBC, Luis Collazo (35-5, 18 KO’s) doesn’t seem to mind that he’s an underdog going into his fight this Saturday night against #2 WBC Amir Khan (28-3, 19 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Collazo says he prefers being an underdog for some reason. I guess it comes down to Collazo wanting to fight without pressure, and with a feeling like he has something to prove to boxing fans. Collazo’s definitely got something to prove, because he’s not done much with his career in the past 5 years.

This only going to be Collazo’s second recognizable opponent since 2009. Collazo beat the shell of Victor Ortiz last January, but before that there was a five year period of Collazo fighting guys that little known opposition.

“You can expect fireworks in the ring on Saturday,” Collazo said. “I love being the underdog. I’ve been the underdog my entire life. I may be underrated, but I’ve never faded. I’m humbled by the opportunity to be here. I’m going to give the fans a great night of boxing.”

Collazo could do well in this fight against Khan as long as he times him, and waits on Khan to come charging in like he always does. Khan has proven to be a sucker for a left hook. With Collazo being a southpaw, he’ll need to find a way to land his right hooks, but it’s likely that Khan will be wide open for them as well. A leopard can’t change his spots, and I expect Khan to be fighting in the same wild manner as he’s always done. Khan tries too hard to be crowd-pleasing, and unfortunately for him his punch resistance isn’t good enough for him to fight in this manner.

To be sure, Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter has tried to make him more of a boxer, but with mixed results. In Khan’s last two fights against Carlos Molina and Julio Diaz, Khan still pretty much was rushing forward and getting nailed with shots. Khan was landing his own punches as he always does, but he was getting nailed. The thing is if Khan gets into a battle against Collazo on Saturday night where he starts trading shots, then Collazo will have the advantage because he hits harder, has a better chin, and is made for that kind of game. Khan is someone who should be fighting on the outside using his reach and his jabs to win fights.

Khan wants to impress in this fight, but I’m not sure if that’s possible, even if he wins. I can see Khan ruining his victory by doing things like shoving Collazo, running or pulling his head down like he did in his fight against Lamont Peterson. That was not a crowd pleasing fight for Khan, and eventually he lost two points for his constant shoving of Peterson. Khan had problems with Peterson’s body punching, so he resorted to shoving Peterson each time he would get close. Khan would later say he shoved or pulled down on Peterson’s head to avoid being head-butted by him, but it just looked like Khan was having major problems with Peterson’s body attack.