MELVIN JERUSALEM lost his World Boxing Organization (WBO) minimum weight title via technical knockout to Puerto Rico’s Oscar Collazo after he refused to answer the bell for the seventh round on Sunday at Fantasy Springs resorts in Indio, California.
Jerusalem, 29, fought aggressively early in the fight with several combinations but failed to hurt the Puerto Rican.
Collazo, 26, attacked in fifth and sixth rounds as Jerusalem showed cracks in his stamina.
Jerusalem continued to slowdown in the sixth round as Collazo noticed that he was breathing harder.
“The game plan was to attack the body. And by the fourth and fifth round, I could see he’s breathing harder and slowing down so I continued to chop the three,” Collazo said.
Collazo got his seventh straight win to stay undefeated as a pro with five knockouts.
Jerusalem, who won the title via second round knockout of Masataka Taniguchi in Japan last January 6, fell to 20-3 record with 12 knockouts.
With his loss, the Philippines is left with one world champion—Marlon Tapales , the unified World Boxing Association and International Boxing Federation super bantamweight titlist.
