A BIG DEAL
OSCAR COLLAZO MAY FIGHT IN BOXING’S SMALLEST WEIGHT DIVISION, BUT THE UNIFIED STRAWWEIGHT CHAMPION IS FORGING A LEGACY OF HISTORIC PROPORTIONS By Carlos Narváez Rosario S ince making its Olympic debut in 1948, Puerto Rico has won only 12 medals. Half of them – five bronze and one silver – came through boxing, a sport deeply woven into the island’s identity and one that has produced some of the most celebrated champions in boxing history. The last Puerto Rican boxer to reach the Olympic podium was Daniel Santos, who captured welterweight bronze at the 1996 Atlanta Games before launching a successful professional career that culminated in becoming a world titleholder. Puerto Rico’s only two Olympic gold medals arrived just a few years ago, first through tennis star Monica Puig at Rio 2016 and then hurdler Jasmine Camacho- Quinn at Tokyo 2020. Yet Puerto Rico’s forecast for Tokyo was not just one gold medal. Many believed two were within reach, and one of them was expected to end boxing’s long Olympic drought since Santos’ bronze. Camacho-Quinn entered the 2024 Paris Games as the odds favorite to repeat in the 100-meter hurdles. The other hopeful was a young boxer who had dazzled the boxing world by winning gold in the 49-kilogram division – the amateur equivalent of junior flyweight (108-pound limit) in professional boxing – at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. His name was Oscar “El Pupilo” Collazo.
(Opposite page) Collazo jabbed Jesus Haro to a stoppage in March.
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