Collazo retains minimumweight titles after stoppage of Vayson

Oscar Collazo retained his minimumweight titles with a seventh-round technical knockout of Jayson Vayson on Saturday night at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California, in a DAZN-televised main event that ended amid controversy. In the cofeature, undisputed flyweight champion Gabriela Fundora stopped substitute challenger Alexas Kubicki in the seventh.

Collazo, the 28-year-old Puerto Rican unified WBA and WBO titleholder, was credited with a stoppage at 1 minute, 41 seconds of the seventh round after Vayson’s corner asked the referee to halt the bout. The Filipino challenger had shown moments of success through the middle rounds, but the corner’s intervention left spectators and some ring observers questioning whether the technical knockout was premature.

The fight’s early sequence added to the debate. Referee Thomas Taylor ruled Collazo’s late first-round cuffing blow a knockdown, a call that replays and many fans on social media labeled contentious. Some ringside reports indicated all three judges had Collazo ahead 59-54 at the time of the stoppage, while other observers described the contest as far closer and largely competitive through six rounds.