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Andreas Hale
Oscar Collazo retained the WBO and WBA strawweight titles with a seventh-round stoppage of Jayson Vayson on Saturday when Vayson’s corner inexplicably stopped the fight.
It was a competitive fight at the time of the stoppage as Vayson was staying aggressive against Collazo (13-0, 10 KOs) despite being knocked down by a check hook in the first round. Vayson got back into the fight and was targeting Collazo’s body in the fourth round. Collazo battled back, landing combinations and putting Vayson (14-2-1, 8 KOs) on the ropes in the sixth and seventh rounds.
Despite the back-and-forth action, Vayson’s corner called for the fight to be stopped without Vayson appearing to be in danger.
“They thought I was groggy, but I wanted to fight,” Vayson said. “Of course, I respect the corner’s decision for the safety of the boxer. … I felt the punches in my body, but I thought I could manage it.”
Fighting out of Puerto Rico, Collazo collected his third consecutive stoppage win and has been a champion since 2023. He won the WBO title when he stopped Melvin Jerusalem in May 2023 and added the WBA title in 2024 when he knocked out Knockout CP Freshmart in November 2024.
“I believe I had a good stoppage,” Collazo said. “I was putting pressure on, I was picking my shots. [Round 7] was the round we were going to throw and throw, and we got the stoppage. … The last three rounds I was breaking him down. I knew I was going to get him. I applied the pressure like I wanted. I saw he was slowing down, and I wanted to pick my shots in that round and it got stopped.”
In the co-main event, undisputed women’s flyweight champion Gabriela Fundora (17-0, 8 KOs) battered Alexas Kubicki (13-2, 2 KOs) to earn a dominant seventh-round stoppage. Kubicki replaced Argentina’s Ayelen “Piru” Granadino, who was reportedly denied a visa into the U.S.
Fundora wasted little time landing combinations on the overmatched Kubicki, who valiantly tried to fight off her taller opponent before the fight was halted.