By REYNALD MAGALLON
Jayson Vayson is ready to go as he takes the rare opportunity of becoming a unified champion when he takes on Puerto Rico’s Oscar Collazo for the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Organization (WBO) and Ring Magazine minimum weight belts on Sunday, Sept. 21 at the Fantasy Springs Sports Casino in Las Vegas.
Going down from the 112lbs division to the 105lbs limit just to get his first ever title shot, half of the task had already been accomplished when he easily made the weight at 104.4 lbs.
The champion, Collazo, tipped the scales at 104.6lbs, hoping to add the 27-year-old pride of Agusan del Norte to his growing list of Filipino victims at the end of the fight scheduled for 12 rounds.
But Vayson, who had to change plans from initially being scheduled for a title-eliminator in the flyweight division to flying all the way to the US just to get the crack at the world title, wants none of that.
For one, at stake, for the heavy underdog is the chance to join Pedro Taduran and Melvin Jerusalem as the kings of the minimumweight division. Taduran holds the International Boxing Federation version of the belt while Jerusalem has the World Boxing Council edition.
Should Vayson pull off the victory, it will be the first time in Philippine boxing history that a division will be reigned by champions that are all Filipinos.
But Collazo isn’t a pushover, not with his perfect 12-0 record that included a stoppage against Jerusalem. More so, the Puerto Rican is also aiming to use the bout as a springboard to his plans of unifying all the belts in his division and become the undisputed champion.
Vayson, who packs a 14-1-1 record, is coming in with a mentality that is nothing to lose and everything to gain. And if he manages to pull it off, he would be the next big thing in PH boxing.
