Melvin Jerusalem just couldn't endure the punishment from Puerto Rican challenger Oscar Collazo, waving the white flag at the end of the seventh round to yield his WBO minimumweight belt on Sunday, May 28 (Manila time), at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California.
Jerusalem yields WBO title to Collazo after seventh round TKO
At a glance
Melvin Jerusalem just couldn't endure the punishment from Puerto Rican challenger Oscar Collazo, waving the white flag at the end of the seventh round to yield his WBO minimumweight belt on Sunday, May 28 (Manila time), at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California.
Jerusalem simply couldn’t keep up his pace after a strong start in the first three rounds and was worn down by the sharp body shots and relentless aggression from Collazo who made history as the fastest Puerto Rican to win a world title after being unbeaten in his first seven matches which included five KO wins.
The Filipino fighter looked like a tree slowly getting chopped down, with Collazo landing power punches to the body that hurt and slowed down Jerusalem starting in the fifth round.
The Puerto Rican continued to invest on the body blows, also occasionally staggering Jerusalem with a series of clean hits to the head to dictate the pace of the fight.
Jerusalem, despite being already gassed out, tried to desperately fight back but simply couldn’t find any answer to Collazo’s assault as his wild swings caught nothing but air.
A masterful seventh round show that saw Collazo connect on a couple of hard punches including a huge left to the head and a couple more to the body proved to be enough to convince Jerusalem to quit on his stool and ask referee Ray Corona to stop the fight.
Jerusalem, who failed to defend the title in his first try, was stopped for the first time in his career and dropped his record to 20-3 (12 KOs).