Collazo stops ex-Mayweather foe Ortiz in 2nd round

NEW YORK – Luis Collazo stopped Victor Ortiz at 2:59 of the second round in a welterweight fight at the Barclays Center on Thursday night (Friday Manila time).

Collazo (35-5) recorded his 18th knockout much to the delight of the pro-Brooklyn crowd when he got Ortiz into a corner and then pounded the former welterweight champion with a hard right hook across the face that sent him staggering.

Nicknamed ''The People's Champ'' for being from the Williamsburg section of the borough, Collazo recorded his first knockout before the third round in nearly nine years and spoiled Ortiz's comeback attempt from a promising rise up the welterweight chain.

Ortiz (29-5-2) was in the ring for the first time since breaking his jaw in gruesome fashion in the ninth round against Josesito Lopez on June 23, 2012, in Los Angeles. That came after he was knocked out in the fourth by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in his first WBC title defense on Sept. 17, 2011.

Since suffering the injury, Ortiz had appeared on ABC's ''Dancing with the Stars'' and spent last summer in Bulgaria filming ''The Expendables Three''.

In the co-main event, super welterweight Eddie Gomez (16-0) won a unanimous decision over Daquan Arnett (11-1) in a 10-round fight, taking the bout with scores of 98-91, 97-92 and 97-92. The Bronx native briefly dropped Arnett in the seventh round with a hard right hook to the face, but despite a flurry of punches in the final minute of the round he was unable to produce his 11th career knockout.

In the first televised fight on the card, super featherweight Gary Russell Jr. (24-0) recorded his 14th career knockout when he stopped Miguel Tamayo 1:04 into the fourth round. Russell finished the fight by forcing Tamayo into a corner and the fight ended after he landed three consecutive hard right hooks.

Promoters said 8,050 attended the fight. The crowd included Brooklyn Nets' Paul Pierce, Jason Terry and Andray Blatche along with current WBA and WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia.