Steve Collins (boxer)

Steve Collins
Data
Birth Name	Steven Collins
Weight class	Middleweight, super middleweight
nationality	Irish
birthday	July 21, 1964
place of birth	Dublin
style	Left delivery
size	1.83 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	39
Victories	36
Knockout victories	21st
Defeats	3

Steven "Steve" Collins (born July 21, 1964 in Dublin ) is a former Irish professional boxer and former world champion of the WBO middleweight and super middleweight division. The Internet database BoxRec lists him among the top 10 best super middleweight boxers of all time (as of December 2018).

Beginnings

As an amateur, Collins won 82 out of 90 fights and won several Irish tournaments. In 1986 he achieved his greatest amateur success when he won the Irish middleweight championship and defeated the Hungarian Olympic boxer Zoltán Fuzesy on points in a country comparison match . After another country comparison match against the USA in the same year, he decided to stay in the States and moved to Brockton , the hometown of his role model Marvin Hagler . He introduced himself at the Petronelli Gym in Boston , Marvin Hagler's training facility run by the two Petronelli brothers Guerino “Goody” and Pasquale “Pat”. They recognized his talent and took over his training and management.

In October 1986 he played his first professional fight at an event at which his later coach Freddie Roach and Micky Ward, who was also of Irish descent, also appeared as boxers. Collins won the fight by knockout in the third round and was able to celebrate six more victories by the end of 1987. On March 18, 1988 he boxed in Boston against the unbeaten Sam Storey (8-0), to whom he was defeated as an amateur in the final of the Irish Championships 1985, for the Irish middleweight championship. Collins was able to prevail unanimously on points.

By February 1989 he had five more victorious fights, including a knockout victory against the undefeated Paul McPeek (16-0). On May 9, 1989, he boxed in Atlantic City against Kevin Watts (18-4) for the US middleweight championship. Although he had to hit the ground in the eleventh round with a body hit for the first time in his professional career, he won the fight unanimously on points. It was also his first fight over 12 rounds.

He defended the title on July 16, 1989 in Atlantic City against the punching postman Tony Thornton (21-2, 18 knockouts). Collins was also able to win this fight, in which he sustained a serious ear injury, on points and was now among the top 10 in the world rankings for the first time.

First title chances (WBA, EBU)

After a knockout victory against the Californian Roberto Rosiles in November 1989, he got a WBA world title chance in the middleweight division against the reigning world champion Mike McCallum (36-1, 31 knockout) on February 3, 1990 in Boston . ). Collins thus had the chance to become the new world champion after less than three and a half years of professional experience in his adopted home, in front of Irish fans who had traveled to the country and broadcast by ABC nationwide on TV. McCallum was unimpressed by his internationally inexperienced opponent and announced before the fight that he would knock Collins out after a short warm-up phase. In fact, this seemed to be the case, McCallum clearly won the first five rounds and looked a few classes more experienced than Collins. However, this received strategy-changing instructions from his coach and was able to make the fight more balanced from the sixth round. Collins was now able to land body hits and right straight on the head of his opponent again and again. In the last few laps it seemed as if McCallum would evade the open exchange of blows and rely on his point advantage. This brought him victory on points after 12 rounds, but from now on Collins was considered a “white hope” in the middleweight division, which is mainly dominated by blacks.

In the following fights he defeated Fermin Chirino (11-4) from Venezuela by knockout in the sixth round, Edward Allen Hall (20-6) by unanimous victory, and Kenny Snow (28-11), Jean-Noel Camara ( 21-10) and Dan Morgan (39-1, 28 knockout) each by knockout in the third round. However, there was no agreed rematch against Mike McCallum, as this rose to the super middleweight division. But Collins got another chance for the title for the now vacant WBA belt against number 2 in the world rankings, Reggie Johnson (30-2) from Texas. But even in this unclean duel, Collins was narrowly defeated and not undisputed on points.

After six months of abstinence from the ring, he was given another title chance against a world class opponent. He boxed on October 22, 1992 in Italy against the Zaire-born Italian EBU European Champion Sumbu Kalambay (55-5, 32 knockout). The offensive fighting style of Collins suited a defensive expert and counter-boxer like Kalambay, which is why Collins lost this fight on points despite an outstanding performance. However, it was the last defeat of his career.

WBO world champion

Collins moved his training facility to Great Britain and won six fights there, five of them prematurely. On May 11, 1994 he was allowed to box in Sheffield against WBO world champion Chris Pyatt (42-3, 32 knockout) for his world title in middleweight. Collins won by knockout in the fifth round and was finally world champion.

But instead of defending his title, he laid it down in March 1995 to move up to the next higher weight class, the super middleweight division. The reason for this was a title chance made possible there against the undefeated, British WBO champion Chris Eubank , against whom Collins had wanted to compete for a long time. He was able to send the undefeated Eubank to the ground in 43 professional fights on March 18, 1995 in Ireland for the first time in his career in the eighth round, but had to go down himself once in the tenth round. However, Collins had prepared intensively for the fighting style of Eubank and was able to successfully counter almost every one of his attacks. After the full 12 rounds, Collins was declared the unanimous points winner and prepared for a rematch.

This took place again on September 9, 1995 in Ireland. But even in this fight Collins did not let his opponent get a chance and won again on points. Eubank was frustrated by the two defeats against Collins and announced his retirement from boxing just a month later. On November 25, 1995, Collins defended his title by unanimous scoring against the respected British champion Cornelius Carr (26-1), who had acquired a high level of experience as a sparring partner of Chris Eubank and Roy Jones junior . On March 9, 1996, he defeated the British Neville Brown (29-3) outstandingly by knockout in the eleventh round, where he had him on the ground in the first round.

On July 6, 1996 he went into the ring in Manchester to defend his title against Dark Destroyer Nigel Benn , who is listed as the second best super middleweight of all time in the BoxRec list (as of June 2012). He was also world champion of the WBO in middleweight, as well as WBC world champion in super middleweight and had won 42 of his 45 professional fights to date, 35 of them by knockout. So far he has only suffered defeats against the exceptional talents Michael Watson , Chris Eubank and Thulani Malinga , the latter only four months before his fight against Collins. The fight itself came to an unspectacular end; Benn fell unhappy to the ground in the fourth round and complained of pain in his ankle, but decided to continue boxing. When Collins attacked him again shortly afterwards with a series of blows, Benn turned to the ring ropes and gave up the fight. He justified this with his foot injury and requested a rematch, which was granted to him.

This was held on November 9 of the same year and again in Manchester. Collins recognized Benn's tactic of quick avoidance movements that were supposed to provoke him to an exhausting attack and therefore only attacked Benn when he had returned to an upright position. With this simple tactic and his own counterattack, Collins finally won through and dominated his opponent. Benn recognized the superiority of his opponent and gave up the fight after the sixth round. Like Eubank, he announced his retirement from boxing.

On February 8, 1997, Collins won his sixth title defense against the French European champion Frédéric Seillier (43-6) in London . The referee ended the fight in the fifth round due to several severe cut injuries in Seillier's face. On July 5, 1997, Collins faced the American Craig Cummings (34-2, 29 knockout) in Scotland. Collins went down in an open exchange of blows at the beginning of the fight and was counted up to 8. It was only the third time he had seen it in his professional career. But then he was able to bring Cummings down on the first lap. In the third round, the referee finally stopped the fight because Cummings had cut injuries to his face and looked badly bruised.

Subsequently promised fights against Roy Jones Jr. and Joe Calzaghe did not materialize, as Collins announced his resignation after the Cummings fight.

Life outside the boxing ring

In 1998, his friend gave him Vinnie Jones an acting role in the movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels from Guy Ritchie . In it he plays the bouncer of a boxing club. He also appeared in the music video for " The Sweetest Thing " by the Irish rock band U2 . He has had other TV appearances so far, among others in the English biography adaptation "The Kid" (2010), the Irish short film "The Underground" (2012) and an episode of the TV series The Doctor and the Dear Cattle .

Collins has been married to Donna Feist, who is eleven years his junior, since 2004 and lives in England. He is also the father of five children from two previous relationships.

He was next to his former opponent Nigel Benn , the singer Lee Latchford-Evans , the stuntman Ryan Dunn , the actress and singer Heather Peace , and the Big Brother participant Jason Cowan , one of six participants in the 2005 reality TV series "Commando VIP ”of the British broadcaster Channel Five .

On June 3, 2006, he co- hosted RTÉ at the National Boxing Stadium in Dublin to comment on a fight between the future WBA world champion Bernard Dunne from Ireland and the American David Martínez. After the fight, Collins briefly left the stadium, but was prevented from re-entering by a security guard who claims not to have recognized Collins. After a scuffle, Collins slapped the security guard in the face, and he filed a charge of assault. Collins, on the other hand, pleaded for self-defense and stated that he was first assaulted by the security guard and that he only defended himself adequately. The investigation and trial that followed dragged on for four years and finally ended in November 2010. Collins was acquitted of the charge of assault by the 12 jurors.

predecessor	Office	successor
Chris Pyatt	World Middleweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) May 11, 1994 - March 18, 1995	Lonnie Bradley

predecessor	Office	successor
Chris Eubank	World super middleweight boxing champion ( WBO ) March 18, 1995 - July 5, 1997	Joe Calzaghe

Web links

• Profile in the BoxRec database
• Career review at East Side Boxing

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Steve Collins at MN2
2. ↑ Steve Collins in the International Movie Data Base
3. ↑ Steve Ko'd by Bride Donna; Former boxing champ Collins weds wife No2, The free Library
4. ↑ Commando VIP, TV Rage
5. ↑ Boxer Steve Collins cleared of assaulting doorman at boxing event, Belfast Telegraph
6. ^ Ex-boxer Collins cleared of assault, Belfast Telegraph