WBA International Welterweight Champion Luis Collazo arrived this week at Fort Jackson Military Base in South Carolina to prepare for his upcoming WBC Silver Welterweight World Championship bout against former unified world champion Amir “King” Khan. The bout was officially announced earlier this week as the co-main event of “THE MOMENT: Mayweather vs. Maidana” which will take place on May 3 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., live on SHOWTIME PPV®.
“I love coming down here, it’s a great place to focus before a big fight,” said Collazo. “The atmosphere in Fort Jackson is great. It’s simply an amazing place to train. The troops inspire me. They are disciplined and loyal, and they push themselves to the limit.
I admire them. I always gain inspiration from being around them.”
Collazo has trained at Fort Jackson for the majority of his fights since 2008, most recently, prior to his Sept. 2013 unanimous decision victory against Alan Sanchez, when he earned the vacant WBA International Welterweight Title. He decided to train locally in Brooklyn for his Jan. 30 fight against Victor Ortiz, but for his upcoming fight against Khan, he’s back to his favorite training spot with two of his trainers – Andrew Stokes and Willy Vargas.
“It’s nice to get away from some of the distractions at home and to just be here staying focused with my team,” said Collazo.
“The first thing about Fort Jackson is the weather is very accommodating,” said Stokes. “The atmosphere is very conducive to the atmosphere that Luis likes to train in. But I think that one of the most important things about setting up camp here is that Luis really enjoys training with the soldiers, and this is the largest army training facility in the U.S.”
“Khan is a good fighter, he’s fought some good guys, but he better be ready for me,” said Collazo. “I’m going to bring something he hasn’t seen before.”
Collazo will return to New York City to complete the last stage of his training with his longtime Head Trainer Nirmal Lorrick. Collazo and Lorrick have been working together since the early 1990’s, for more than 20 years.
THE MOMENT: Mayweather vs. Maidana,” is a 12-round world championship unification bout for Mayweather and Maidana’s respective 147-pound titles. This is the third fight of Mayweather’s lucrative multi-fight deal with Showtime Networks Inc. THE MOMENT is promoted by Mayweather Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions and sponsored by Corona, O’Reilly Auto Parts and AT&T. In the co-main event, Amir Khan faces Luis Collazo in a 12-round bout for the vacant WBC Silver Welterweight World Championship. The pay-per-view undercard also features a 1
10-round junior welterweight fight between Adrien Broner and Carlos Molina as well as a 10-round super middleweight bout featuring J’Leon Love vs. Marco Antonio Periban. The event will be produced and distributed live by SHOWTIME PPV (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT) will be available in Spanish via secondary audio programming (SAP).
Tickets priced at $1,500, $1,000 and $750 are still available, not including applicable service charges and taxes. Tickets priced at $550 and $350 are sold out. Tickets are limited to eight (8) per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.
