In a battle of former welterweight title holders, Victor Ortiz will fight Luis Collazo on January 30th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and will be televised on Fox Sports 1 according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.
“Victor was disappointed when Alfonso Gomez had to pull out of their fight but now he is excited about the exposure he will get against Collazo on this card,” said Golden Boy Promotions Richard Schaefer. “It’s tied in with the Super Bowl. For us and Victor to be part of this is fantastic. Victor is one of the most recognized names in boxing, so it’s a highly anticipated comeback against another former champion.
“This is not a tuneup fight. This is a real fight, but if Victor can come back and show what he can do with Collazo, he will be right back in the middle of the mix at 147 pounds. Instead of being the fourth fight in San Antonio, he’s the main event now and thrilled about it.”
“I think Ortiz is a great fighter and he was champ, but he and Luis are both at the point in their career where a fight like this is very important,” said Nirmal Lorick, Collazo’s trainer and co-manager. “The outcome will see who goes forward. They’re both capable of winning. It’s a good fight for boxing. Luis is still one of the best welterweights to me. We don’t duck anybody. Hopefully, after we win this one, we’ll get another world title fight.”
“Luis was waiting for another big fight and has been working toward that, and now he’s getting it,” Schaefer said. “We brought him back [from a long layoff] when we signed him. We’ve kept him busy, and now he has an a great opportunity to go in against Victor Ortiz knowing that a win will lead him to even bigger fights.”
