Oscar Collazo retained his Ring Magazine, WBO, and WBA world strawweight titles via KO after Jayson Vayson’s corner shockingly threw in the towel during the seventh round of their main event in California.
Collazo was gifted an early knockdown after catching Vayson with a glancing check right hook near the end of the opening round. The punch didn’t appear to affect Vayson, but he was just off-balance enough to hit the mat. Arguably, it could have been called a slip, but because the fall was preceded by a punch, the referee opted to rule it a knockdown for Collazo.
Vayson regained some momentum in the second stanza, landing a big right hand of his own that wobbled Collazo. However, Vayson’s success was short-lived as Collazo repeatedly made him pay in the third with a slew of brutal body shots.
In the fourth, Vayson landed his own booming body blow that had Collazo breathing heavy. Vayson dominated the early part of the round, but Collazo came on late, potentially swinging the scorecards back into his favor.
After a fairly competitive fifth round, Collazo started to turn up the heat in the sixth, but Vayson showed no signs of backing down. Inexplicably, the referee stepped in during one of Collazo’s flurries and called for the standing KO stoppage. The decision caused mass confusion for those in attendance. Even the commentators slammed the stoppage, calling it a “botch” before condemning the decision.
As it turns out, Vayson’s corner verbally threw in the towel, stripping their fighter of a chance to become a world champion. “Every single person in that corner needs to be fired,” one commentator exclaimed during the broadcast.
Official Result: Oscar Collazo def. Jayson Vayson via KO (threw in the towel) at 1:41 of Round 7.
