Wall Street Journal: Boxer Gets Home Shot

From the Wall Street Journal:

Is it unusual that at the Starrett City Boxing Club in Brooklyn, an organization dedicated to the art of beating opponents into submission, the overwhelming sensation is one of brotherhood?

One of the club's graduates, Luis Collazo, will be fighting for a shot at the world welterweight title on Jan. 30 at Barclays Center. It's little exaggeration to say that the 32-year-old Mr. Collazo was raised at the gym. "His dad brought him here," remembered Willie Vargas, one of the boxer's trainers. "He said, 'He's not listening. He doesn't want to go to school. He likes to fight. So I figured I'd bring him to the gym.'"

Mr. Collazo was 11 years old at the time. But he had already displayed talent on the streets of Williamsburg—in the days before it became a destination. "I was the small one," said the fighter, who hasn't grown all that much in the meantime. He's 5 feet, 9 inches and 147 pounds, with a professional record of 34-5, including 17 knockouts. "I was always getting picked on. I was beating up the bigger kids, but what good was that for me?"

Read the full article on wallstreetjournal.com