Collazo outpoints Vargas to stay in welterweight race

Luis Collazo is still winning after all these years.

In his 19th year as a professional fighter, Luis Collazo still has some spring in his step, and is keeping himself relevant in the fractured welterweight division.

Collazo won a split decision over Samuel Vargas today in New York, winning on scores of 94-96, 96-94, and 98-92. BLH had it 97-93 for Collazo, who absolutely deserved the win. There’s no controversy here.

That’s not to say it was an easy win for Collazo (39-7, 20 KO), as the 37-year-old veteran and former titleholder had to deal with some solid body work in particular from Vargas (30-5-2, 14 KO). Collazo also wound up cut on both eyelids, which at this point is pretty much all in a day’s work for the Puerto Rican southpaw.

Nobody really wants to hear this, but the fact is that with this win, Collazo keeps himself right in line for a shot at Terence Crawford and the WBO title. Outside of Crawford, all of the big names in the 147-pound ranks are with the PBC crew — Errol Spence Jr, Keith Thurman, Manny Pacquiao, Shawn Porter, and Danny Garcia are all PBC fighters. That all but completely rules them out for fights with Crawford, a Top Rank/ESPN fighter.

So that means that yes, Collazo, who is now with Top Rank, is in the mix for a world title fight. Top Rank simply has very few options for Crawford. For Collazo, it’s good news, even if he’s not specifically calling out Crawford.

“You always wanna fight for a world title,” he said after the fight. “I’ve still got the desire, I’ve still got the fire. I want to fight the top guys in the welterweight division. They know who they are.”