Oscar Collazo celebrates the third defense of his WBO 105-pound title. Photo by Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy
Boxing’s smallest division is ready for its biggest fight ever.
The Ring confirmed that Oscar Collazo and Thammanoon Niyomtrong have agreed to terms for a strawweight unification bout. The pair of undefeated titleholders will meet on November 16 as part of the Riyadh Season ‘Latino Night’ show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
For the first time in the division’s history, The Ring championship will be at stake. Puerto Rico’s Collazo (10-0, 7 KOs) is the no. 1-rated strawweight, while Thailand’s Niyomtrong (25-0, 9 KOs) – known to the cool kids as Knockout CP Freshmart – no. 2 out of 105 is. The Ring belt was not in circulation when Mexico’s Ricardo Lopez last held a division championship streak during the 1990s.
From an alphabet sentence, Collazo (27) will challenge his WBO belt for the fourth time. Niyomtrong (33) places his WBA crown for the thirteenth time as the sport’s longest reigning title list.
Multiple sources informed The Ring that both sides have been working feverishly for the past few weeks to reach an agreement. This came after Collazo had already been announced to defend his title against Mexico’s Edwin ‘Canito’ Hernandez (13-2-1, 4 KOs).
However, Golden Boy was determined to have at least one Ring Championship on the line for his first full Riyadh season card. It was at that point when representatives of Collazo and Niyomtrong gathered to speak.
The Ring learned that a conditional part of the match is that the winner must face Hernandez next.
Collazo-Niyomtrong is the division’s first true 1-on-2 pairing since Lopez’s two fights with Nicaragua’s Rosendo Alvarez. In fact, it would be 26 years almost to the day of their memorable rematch in November 1998, which was won by Lopez.
The two fought to a technical draw earlier that year. It was the only blemish in Lopez’s Hall of Fame-honored career. He won their second fight by split decision to unify the WBC and WBA titles.
It was the last linear championship fight at the weight, as Lopez moved up and won a title at junior flyweight one year later.
Collazo was two months shy of his second birthday at the time of Lopez-Alvarez II. Niyomtrong was already eight years old.
The fight will be Collazo’s third of the year. That’s two fights shy of the five that would have allowed him to collect promoter Oscar De La Hoya’s massive bonus. However, it is worth the wait.
The Puerto Rican southpaw went all twelve rounds in a unanimous decision win over Gerardo Zapata on June 7th. It snapped a four-fight knockout streak, including his seventh-round stoppage in May 2023 of Melvin Jerusalem to win the title.
Jerusalem (22-3, 12 KOs), no. 4 at 105 through The Ring, returned to win the WBC title earlier this year.
Niyomtrong ended a more than two-year layoff with his most recent title defense.
His eight-year reign was extended after a twelve-round victory over then-undefeated Alex Winwood (4-1, 2 KOs) in Mount Claremont, Australia.
Niyomtrong upgraded to WBA ‘Super’ strawweight belt holder with a win over Byron Rojas in their June 2016 title consolidation bout. Among his twelve successful defenses, Niyomytrong pointed out Rojas in their November 2018 rematch.
The game against Collazo will be his second straight on the road after spending most of his career at home in Thailand. Collazo is fighting outside America for the first time in his four-year career.
With this battle, there will be a combined four RING Championships on the line for the final three Riyadh Season Shows of the year.
