Oscar Collazo Batters Diagan In First Defense

In a homecoming title defense for WBO strawweight champ Oscar Collazo, the new champ made easy work of his Filipino opponent for a TKO.

In the Golden Boy Boxing/DAZN main event Saturday night in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Collazo pounded Garen Diagan over six rounds, especially to the body, and the challenger didn’t answer the bell for the seventh. The win improving Collazo to 8-0, 6 KOs and building on being the fastest Puerto Rican world champion ever (seventh pro fight).

💥 AND STILL 💥

Oscar Collazo triumphs in his first WBO Mini Flyweight Championship defense 🇵🇷#CollazoDiagan pic.twitter.com/kjsxk3LbzS

— DAZN Boxing (@DAZNBoxing) August 27, 2023

Collazo, who won the WBO title with his TKO demolition of Melvin Jerusalem in California back in late May, was all over Diagan early to the roaring approval of the crowd in the famed Roberto Clemente Coliseum. The fight was co-promoted by hall of famer Miguel Cotto Promotions.

“I want to thank God, my team, Miguel Cotto Promotions, Golden Boy, DAZN and all of Puerto Rico for the support to get to this victory. I knew he was going to break down eventually. We had the strong jab, the physical, and the mental pressure that got us the victory. Puerto Ricans know how to celebrate, and we will do a lot of it tonight,” Collazo said to DAZN in the ring.

Collazo Too Tough Inside

Diagan was able to occasionally score with left hands, but Collazo was the aggressor, who was very effective with uppercuts with both hands as the bout wore on. He forced the Filipino to the corner a twice late in the sixth round scoring with rights and lefts to the body, as well. Eventually, the referee was summoned to the challenger’s corner with Diagan, apparently weary from the body shots, clearly shook his head “no” that he did not want to come out for the seventh round.

Collazo, 26, has quickly jumped into the world championship mix and could have an intriguing “Puerto Rico vs. Mexico” unification fight coming up with Daniel Valladares of Mexico, who holds the IBF title. Valladares is 15-3-1, and is defending his version of the 105 lb. championships against Japanese contender Ginjiro Shigeoka in Osaka, Japan on October 7th. Villadares and Shigeoka had a no contest title fight in January of this year after a clash of heads int he third rond caused a cut for the Mexican, who couldn’t continue.

On the Golden Boy undercard/co-feature,  Juan Carlos Camacho Jr. improved to 18-1, 7 KOs, as he defeated Jorge Orozco, 17-4-2, 11 KOs with a barrage of body shots himself for a first-round knockout. The 26 year old Puerto Rican Camacho took won the NABF super flyweight title with the easy win.