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Luis Collazo: I'm going to welcome Amir Khan to the welterweight division

Luis Collazo fought his way back into the welterweight title picture with a January win over Victor Ortiz, and now he's looking to upset another favored Golden Boy youngster when he faces Amir Khan on May 3.

Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports
Scott Christ is the managing editor of Bad Left Hook and has been covering boxing for SB Nation since 2006.

Luis Collazo has a big opportunity on May 3, when the veteran welterweight contender faces Amir Khan, who is moving up in weight and chasing a potential big money main event with Floyd Mayweather yet again. Collazo, who turns 33 next month, is coming off of a big KO-2 win over Victor Ortiz on January 30, which put him into position to get himself back into the mix at 147 pounds, five years after his last world title shot.

Collazo (35-5, 18 KO) has won four in a row since a 2011 loss to Freddy Hernandez, and the Ortiz win was easily the biggest, and maybe the most important of his career to date. He says that while Khan (28-3, 19 KO) was knocked out by Danny Garcia in 2012 in much the same way he stopped Ortiz, he's not going to focus on replicating that fight:

"I've got to break him down first because you can't be like a kangaroo running all over the place. I've got to go back and watch some of the other tapes of his fights that he's fought the last few times. Then I just have to be smart and use my experience and go in there and just take care of business. ... Amir Khan has never fought at 147 pounds but, hey, I'm going to welcome him into the division."

Collazo called out Floyd Mayweather after his win over Ortiz, simply because there's no reason not to call out Mayweather, basically, if you win a notable fight on national TV and you're in Floyd's weight class, and there has at least been some lip service paid to the idea of Mayweather-Collazo if Luis beats Khan on May 3. It may seem crazy to think of that as a possible fight, but we've seen Floyd fight Robert Guerrero and next up Marcos Maidana, neither of whom were on the radar for too long before Mayweather fought them.

In short, if you get a notable win or two, and you're in the Golden Boy/Haymon stable(s), then Mayweather just might look your way. And there has been some discussion of taking Floyd to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where Collazo is a hometown fighter.

Obviously, first things first, Collazo has to beat Khan. Amir has been knocking on the Mayweather door more than once in the past, only to fall short, either by losing or by someone else taking the fight instead. Collazo is no pushover, and with Khan's fatal flaws, anyone can be dangerous.

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