Luis Collazo has arrived at U.S. Army base Fort Jackson in South Carolina to begin his training camp for his May 3 fight against Amir Khan, which will take place on the Mayweather-Maidana undercard, featured as the main support bout to the Showtime pay-per-view main event.
Collazo (35-5, 18 KO) has trained at Fort Jackson for most of his fights in the last five years, and is back again with two of his trainers, Andrew Stokes and Willy Vargas.
"I love coming down here, it's a great place to focus before a big fight," said Collazo. "The atmosphere in Fort Jackson is great. It's simply an amazing place to train. The troops inspire me. They are disciplined and loyal, and they push themselves to the limit. I admire them. I always gain inspiration from being around them."
Though he'll finish up his camp with head trainer Nirmal Lorrick in New York, Collazo says not training at home can be a big help.
"It's nice to get away from some of the distractions at home and to just be here staying focused with my team," said Collazo.
"The first thing about Fort Jackson is the weather is very accommodating," said Stokes. "The atmosphere is very conducive to the atmosphere that Luis likes to train in. But I think that one of the most important things about setting up camp here is that Luis really enjoys training with the soldiers, and this is the largest army training facility in the U.S."
Khan (28-3, 19 KO) was once thought to be the leading candidate to face Floyd Mayweather on May 3, but that changed when Marcos Maidana upset Adrien Broner on December 14. Now, Khan makes his welterweight debut not in the big money fight against Floyd, but in a dangerous bout against Collazo, where the risk is high, and the reward may be, too.
The winner of the fight could go on to face Mayweather later this year or in 2015. Collazo is confident that he'll insert himself into the next Mayweather sweepstakes by beating Khan.
"Khan is a good fighter, he's fought some good guys, but he better be ready for me," said Collazo. "I'm going to bring something he hasn't seen before."