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Collazo re-emerges with victory over Sanchez

Fighters Network
03
Sep

When Luis Collazo was fighting championship fights on HBO, Alan Sanchez was barely old enough to drive a car and hadn’t fought as a professional yet.

That experience helped guide the battle-tested Collazo (34-5, 17 knockouts) to a unanimous-decision victory over the ten-year younger Sanchez (12-3-1, 6 KOs) in their ten-round main event on Fox Sports 1’s second Monday night broadcast.

The two felt each other out in the opening round, but Collazo showed his sharpness early, landing straight lefts regularly. Sanchez didn’t open up until a few rounds later, and began landing straight right hands, though Collazo would occasionally land a pretty counter.

There were lots of lulls in the action as Collazo did his best work stalking Sanchez to the ropes and landing to the body. Sanchez closed a few of the rounds by being more offensive, but this happened mostly in rounds that Collazo had done better work over the opening two-plus minutes.



99-91, 98-92, 97-93 were the score totals in favor of the former WBA welterweight titlist, Collazo. The Brooklyn native has been off the radar for the last few years but the victory could set him up for a bigger fight. The tricky southpaw will probably find it difficult finding a willing opponent because he doesn’t have a big name and is a tough fighter to look good against.

Sanchez, of Fairfield, Calif., is only 22 years old and will benefit from being in with a veteran like Collazo, while also not absorbing much punishment in the process. It was his first fight of 2013 and the layoff of 10 months undoubtedly played a part in his slow start in the fight.

It looked like it was going to be a quick night for 2012 U.S. Olympian Rau’shee Warren after dropping Omar Gonzalez twice in the opening round, but Warren had to endure the six-round distance, ultimately earning a unanimous decision.

Warren (7-0, 3 KOs), of Cincinnati, put Gonzalez on the deck twice with his quick counterpunching skills, though Gonzalez didn’t seem really hurt either time. Gonzalez made it more competitive in the later rounds, trapping Warren on the ropes in spurts and landing some wide shots that Warren shouldn’t have been caught by. Gonzalez (6-9, 1 KO), a San Antonio native, was dropped again in the fourth and spit out the mouthpiece to buy more time to recover. Gonzalez was downed twice more in the sixth, leading to scorecards of 60-49 twice and 60-51.

Local favorite Raul Martinez (30-3, 18 KOs) was lucky that his opponent Daniel Quevedo (13-14-3, 8 KOs), of Mexico, was unable to come out for the fifth round of their scheduled eight-round junior featherweight bout.

Martinez, a former title challenger at 112 and 115 pounds, slugged it out with the capable journeyman Quevedo in an entertaining battle. At times, Quevedo was landing the better punches when the two traded, and the fight was pretty close at the end of four rounds. Quevedo opted not to come out for the fifth round, citing some sort of injury to his shoulder. Martinez lost a four-rounder in his last fight and hasn’t fought real opposition since a 2011 technical decision loss to Rodrigo Guerrero for a vacant 115-pound belt. At 31, his best days are behind him.

San Antonio welterweight Jairo Castaneda (3-0, KO) made his Golden Boy debut a successful one, earning a four-round unanimous decision over Warren Stewart (0-2) of Austin, Texas.

Just a note on the broadcast: it felt a bit “public access” and was disappointing throughout for the second Monday night broadcast on Fox Sports 1. Announcer Castle Chalice called Alan Sanchez “Hernandez” for about half of the fight. During round two, they did an interview with Omar Figueroa and did not call one second of action. Hopefully they go back to the drawing board and improve from it.

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