There were plenty of other ways for Oscar Collazo to have celebrated his latest win, especially considering the backdrop.
Nobody would have blamed the undefeated lineal and unified strawweight champion if he partied on a Cancun beach hours after his knockout win of Edwin Cano.
Puerto Rico’s Collazo decided the best way to celebrate the victory was to hang out online with his fellow boxing junkies. No sooner than Melvin Jerusalem registered a repeat win over former titlist Yudai Shigeoka to defend his WBC strawweight title hours later in Tokoname, Japan, Collazo made a point to call for a rematch.
“It’s very important that it happens next,” Collazo told BoxingScene. “I want people to see that I’m not here to play.
“It’s hard to make those big money fights at strawweight, these are the fights that will get them to pay attention. Every time I fight, I want everyone to see me—whether it’s the main or the co-main—for them to give those props to us strawweights.”
Such a fight would represent a rematch to their May 2023 meeting. Collazo, 12-0 (8 KOs), won via seventh round stoppage to end Jerusalem’s WBO title reign on a DAZN show from Indio, California.
Five defenses have already followed for boxing’s tiniest male lineal champion, including his sensational seventh-round knockout of Thammanoon Niyomtrong last November 16 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Niyomtrong was an unbeaten WBA titlist and the sport’s longest active titleholder at the time. His reign began in June 2016, when Collazo was only four years into his amateur career and still another four from turning pro.
Jerusalem, 24-3 (12 KOs), made his way back to the title stage in an upset win over Shigeoka to claim the WBC belt last March 31 in Nagoya, Japan. Wins over unbeaten Luis Castilo and Shigeoka a second time have affirmed his place as the world’s second-best strawweight, right behind Collazo.
The performances by both within barely eight hours of each other, went a long way to further the division’s brand.
Collazo stopped Mexico’s Cano, 13-3-1 (4 KOs) in the fifth round to defend his lineal, RING, WBA and WBO strawweight championship Saturday evening in Cancun, Mexico.
A few hours later, the Philippines’ Jerusalem once again turned away Shigeoka, 9-2 (5 KOs), to defend his WBC strap on Sunday atop an ABEMA-TV card from Tokoname, Japan.
The ABEMA-TV card aired in the wee hours of the morning in North America. It was the type of show whose fan base is normally limited to the sport’s most hardcore base, which included Collazo—though for good reason.
“We know he was going to be in a big fight on Sunday,” Collazo said of his decision to rise before dawn to catch the fight. “We knew that a good performance by him would draw attention and get people talking about that rematch.
“Ever since he won a belt again, we knew we needed to make that happen again. I called him out because I want to win his belt and get closer to becoming undisputed champion.”
The good news is that his top divisional rival is equally as eager.
“I want to rematch with Collazo and I will do all my best to win our rematch,” Jerusalem told BoxingScene’s Ryan Songalia. “I am ready for that fight to happen.”
All that is needed now is for the representatives for both camps to open communication and eventually put pen to paper.
With the lineal and Ring championship and three of the four major belts at stake for such a fight, it doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that. The lone other titlist is IBF beltholder Pedro Taduran, 17-4-1 (13 KOs), who is set to rematch Ginjiro Shigeoka, 11-1 (9 KOs) on May 24 in Osaka, Japan.
“I already got three (RING, WBA, WBO). So that makes it easy for who I need to fight,” insists Collazo. “Melvin Jerusalem, and then Pedro Taduran or Ginjiro (Shigeoka) if he wins that rematch. It’s just a matter of time. We just gotta get in the fights this year, or at the latest the first half of next year.”Jake Donovan is an award-winning journalist who served as a senior writer for BoxingScene from 2007-2024, and news editor for the final nine years of his first tour. He was also the lead writer for The Ring before his decision to return home. Follow Jake on X and Instagram.
