Additional reinforcements are joining the camp of Jayson “Striker” Vayson in the coming days as the Filipino challenger’s buildup reaches its climax in Las Vegas.
Less than three weeks before facing minimumweight champion Oscar Collazo for the World Boxing Organization and World Boxing Association and The Ring magazine 105-pound belts, Vayson is doing just fine at his Las Vegas training camp.
With their 20 September showdown fast approaching, Vayson racked up two intense sparring sessions with stablemate JayR Raquinel at the Knuckleheads Boxing training facility owned and operated by American dealmaker Sean Gibbons.
One or two sparmates are on the way to Las Vegas for the final push, according to ring announcer and Gibbons point man Mark Lontayao.
“Jayson’s doing great. He’s been here almost a week and he’s adjusting well (to the time and weather),” said Lontayao, who flew with the Agusan del Sur-born puncher from Manila last Wednesday.
While waiting for the arrival of his lead trainer Allan Alegria and a couple of other key men in his team, Vayson is being attended to by resident trainer Joven Jimenez.
Vayson enters the Collazo clash the heavy underdog.
He brings to the Fantasy Springs Casino Resort in Indio, California a 14-1 win-loss card with eight knockouts and the burning desire to score a landmark victory.
Collazo, who was born in the United States to Puerto Rican parents, sports a 12-0 mark with nine knockouts.
Three of his wins were against Filipinos Melvin Jerusalem and Garen Diagan and Vic Saludar.
The southpaw Collazo forced Jerusalem to quit on his stool when he won the WBO crown in May 2023 at the Fantasy Springs while Diagan also did the same thing three months later at the Roberto Clemente Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Saludar was the only guy to go the distance when he went ten rounds with Collazo in 2022 in Los Angeles and even scored a knockdown.