37-year-old former Welterweight champion Luis Collazo (39-7, 20 KOs) won a split decision over Samuel Vargas (30-5-2, 14 KOs). The contest took place at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden on March 17, 2019.
Both men started off the contest with completely different game plans. Vargas came out aggressive looking to establish himself. Collazo on the other hand was looking to maintain his distance early on. The former champion managed to do just that as he had a very effective first round.
The following round went more in the favor of Vargas. He managed to close the gap and force Collazo to fight him. From there, the fight became exactly how he wanted it.
By forcing Collazo to fight at close quarters he was able to dictate the pace of the fight. It also allowed him to confuse Collazo as he couldn’t figure out how to deal with the constant pressure. Sure, Collazo was able to have very good defensive moments, but not much on the offensive side. Although it took the former champion time to adjust, he eventually did just that.
Collazo began to find openings in the defense of his foe. He also boxed effectively on the outside. The combination of both of those factors allowed the former champ to pull in the close split decision.
The scorecards read 96-94 for Vargas, a score which was overruled by the two remaining judges who gave Collazo the nod with scores of 96-94 and 98-92. For Collazo, it was his third-straight victory. A title shot could be approaching the veteran.
