Puerto Rico is on a roll. With René Santiago being crowned the WBA and WBO titleholder at junior flyweight in December, and Xander Zayas doing the same at junior middleweight in January, the island is enjoying a hot streak in its beloved noble art. On March 14, their third unified champion, Oscar Collazo, will have the chance to keep this upward trajectory intact when he defends his own WBA and WBO strawweight titles against Jesus Haro.
“I know he's gonna be hungry, like every challenger, to be world champion,” Collazo tells BoxingScene. “And I know he’s gonna put up a fight. He's a counter boxer. He's always fighting on the back foot. That's what we like. We like to apply pressure on these type of fighters and just show them who's the big dog.”
Haro, however, was not the expected opponent for this date. Collazo had been hoping to rematch Melvin Jerusalem, current holder of the division’s WBC title, yet the fallout from Golden Boy Promotions’ legal wranglings with Vergil Ortiz Jnr have led to that unification fight being put on hold.
“We wanted a certain type of money, but we didn't get it,” explains Collazo. “We was gonna fight over here in Puerto Rico, and the fight was going over to L.A. So, it changed. Everything changed. I was gonna be a headliner, it changed, but at least they gave us the opportunity to fight, and give us the money that I deserve. That's how I see it. At the end of the day, it's a job for us, and we do this for the money. Legacy is good, but legacy don't pay the bills. It’s real talk, you know? And that's how I see it.
“At least I'm staying active. It's very important to a champion to stay active and stay on the line. Changing your opponent at the last minute is not that much to me. He's a right-handed fighter. He goes back, just like [Melvin] Jerusalem was going to be. He's not a power-puncher. So, we know what we’ve gotta do. We’ve seen him fight already, so he's not a new person to us. So, that's why my main focus is just staying in the ring and doing my work. And I am very ready in this camp. I feel very good. Another fighter is going to just put me on alert.”
Fresh off the disappointment of the Collazo fight falling through, WBC beltholder Melvin Jerusalem is already scheduled to rematch South Africa’s Siyakholwa Kuse on May 16, while IBF titlist Pedro Taduran will face Gustavo Perez on April 3. With all three titleholders determined to remain active, the Puerto Rican southpaw’s plans to unify the weight class appear undimmed.
“Either with Jerusalem or Taduran, whoever wins those fights – because both of them are fighting and I don't disregard fighting them – whoever wins those fights, I'm calling them out, because it's a fight that’s got to happen. What I want is to be the first undisputed champion for the minimumweight and be the first male to do it as a Puerto Rican. If I want people to notice me here in the minimumweight, I gotta achieve that,” Collazo said.
“I want to be in the pound-for-pound [lists] for this 2026 by unifying and getting all the belts as undisputed. I believe doing that is gonna catapult me into at least top-five pound-for-pound, and the world is gonna recognize me. Puerto Rican boxing is going through a very big momentum. A lot of boxers are trying to unify and doing big fights, and we’ve got three unified fighters. It's a big moment for Puerto Rican boxing. And I know a lot of people didn't know at all the history of boxing in Puerto Rico now. And now they know.”
Much of Collazo’s meteoric rise as a professional is owed to a stellar grounding in the amateurs, winning five national championships, bronze at the 2017 Pan-American Championships, and gold at the 2019 Pan-American Games. It was here that he met his trainer and manager, Juan De León, who matched him with tough opposition from the very start. Though results have thus far been perfect, the undefeated Collazo feels he’s only at the start.
“In the 13 fights, a lot of people say that I went rapid. I had a big success in amateur boxing, but 13 fights, I did it. I had a lot. I got hurt, I went to big fights. Champion in my seventh fight, unified in my 11th, I'm going into my seventh title defense. I've been doing a lot with so little [time in] professional boxing, and I believe I got a lot to learn. A lot of people see only the 13 fights, but they don't see what fight I’ve been through and all the hard work that I got through.”
There’s little doubt, however, that plying his trade in the smallest weight class in men’s boxing comes with drawbacks. It’s a reality that has left the unified titleholder feeling frustrated at times, but it’s a challenge he meets head-on outside of the ring, attempting to promote not just himself but also the weight class itself.
“A lot of people don't give 105lbs a lot of recognition because it’s a lower weight class, but we do the same as the heavyweights, as 147lbs, as the 140lbs fighters. We work as hard as them. Why can't we get that recognition the way they got it? That's why I believe that I got to work extra hard, either via social media, either in the fights, either in the press conference, doing things differently for them to notice me. And I believe that we need help from the media, from the different parts of the world to make people’s mind change about the minimumweight.”
