Filipino champs rally behind Vayson

The country’s two reigning world champions — Melvin Jerusalem and Pedro Taduran — believe Jayson “Striker” Vayson has a good chance of beating the heavily-favored Puerto Rican Oscar Collazo on 20 September in Indio, California.

Collazo risks his World Boxing Organization (WBO) and World Boxing Association (WBA) minimumweight titles as well as The Ring magazine strap in the scheduled 12-rounder at the Fantasy Springs Resort and Casino.

A victory by Vayson will make him a three-belt champion, a feat not even the great Manny Pacquiao pulled off during his heyday.

The closest a Filipino boxer came to being undisputed champion was in 2023 when Marlon Tapales defeated Murodjon Akhmadaliev to bag the WBA and International Boxing Federation plums.

Tapales had his chance to win all four belts but he bowed to Naoya Inoue, who was the World Boxing Council and WBO titleholder in their Tokyo clash later in 2023.

Jerusalem insists that Vayson has power needed to get the job done.

“He can take care of himself because he can punch,” said Jerusalem, who is also scheduled to defend his title.

Having lost to Collazo some years back, Jerusalem swears Collazo will be surprised to know that Vayson means business.

“Collazo is going to find himself in a tough fight because Vayson has punching power,” he added.

Taduran, also set to risk his crown soon, offers quite a different view, even though he feels Vayson has what it takes to snatch all three titles.

“He can win, definitely,” Taduran said.

But there’s a catch.

“The problem is his conditioning because that’s going to be very crucial. It would be ideal if he leaves for the US early so that his body can recover and adjust to the local conditions like the weather.”

Vayson has been reclassified as a 105-pounder and is now rated No. 7 by the WBO after having fought as a 108-pounder (light-flyweight) since 2018.

Given Collazo’s immense popularity and superb skill set, Vayson has been installed as the heavy underdog, something Vayson doesn’t mind at all.

“We’ll see what happens on top of the ring,” he said.

Collazo parades a 12-0-0 win-loss-draw record with nine knockouts while Vayson totes a 14-1-1 with eight knockouts.