Bags packed for flyweight ? Not so fast, champ.
The WBO has ordered negotiations between its minimumweight champion Oscar Collazo and interim champion Ryusei Matsumoto.
Two unbeaten fighters. One belt.
Puerto Rico's Collazo is 15-0 (12 KOs) and holds The Ring, WBA and WBO titles at 105 pounds. Japan's Matsumoto, a slick southpaw from Tokyo's Teiken stable, is 9-0 (4 KOs).
But here's the twist.
Collazo had already moved on. He was set to jump TWO weight classes to challenge Ricardo Sandoval for the WBA and WBC flyweight titles in Chicago on October 10 — until a rib injury in camp knocked him off the card.
Sandoval was upset that night anyway, by replacement Sergio Mendoza.
While Collazo was healing, Matsumoto was working. On September 27 at Toyota Arena Tokyo he outpointed previously unbeaten Mexican Russell Acosta (17-1) for the interim belt: 118-110, 116-112, 115-113.
Now the WBO wants its house in order. The WBC and WBA let interim champions sit on their belts for months. The WBO wants one champion per division.
Good on them !
Fifteen days to do a deal. No deal, and it goes to purse bids.
Collazo says he's back training and hopes to fight again in January or February — and he's already started cutting weight. But dragging his body back down to 105 for one more fight is no small ask.
As BoxingNews24 put it, Matsumoto's team "either get a shot at the real belt or pick it up by default."
Japanese fans are already hoping it lands in Japan.
Does the champ come back down to defend — or does the young Japanese southpaw get his hands on the real thing ?
🇵🇷 OSCAR COLLAZO (15-0) vs RYUSEI MATSUMOTO (9-0) 🇯🇵
🥊 WBO minimumweight title (105 lb)
⏳ 15 days to negotiate, then purse bids
📅 Date and venue to be confirmed
Stay tuned !
