Remembering Tough As Nails Two Weight Class World Champion Steve Collins

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

The relationship we have with the Irish tends to be a fairly fractured one. We try our best to be inclusive but our history with the Emerald Isle is not that easy to describe. After all, no matter how you see the politics of it, we have part of their island in our United Kingdom which is ironic; we are far from united in our view of that fact.

So, when it comes to sportsmen and women from the island, it is not always where they are born that provides clues as to their nationalist heritage or their inclination over which cause they would ally themselves to in the sporting politics of their chosen field. Of course, there is never a Southern Irish sportsman who would ever want to be described as a Brit BUT there are plenty in the UK who would like to lay claim to all Irish sportspeople as one of their own.

During the 1990’s we were delighted to watch and see one such Irish boxing legend grow, take on our best and beat them convincingly whilst cheering on from the side lines and recognise that his heritage did not make him one of our own, but his activities had such a huge effect on those of our boxing greats trying to cement a legacy. Steve Collins, 36-3, 21 KO’s, was never going to allow them to dominate and it could be argued that he did a bit of dominating himself for a wee while.

“The Celtic Warrior” lived up to that name every time he entered a ring and is still Ireland’s most successful professional boxer, having held WBO world titles in two weight divisions – middleweight and super middleweight.

His journey in the professional ranks was unusual as its beginning was mainly spent in the United States. His first 20 fights were there, with him managing to get his hands on a USBA regional title.

What was also unusual was that he was unable to hit the heights that his ability showed he was perfectly capable of until he passed the 30 years of age mark. By then he had been involved in three title fights that he had lost.

These include two split decisions to Mike McCallum in 1990 and Reggie Johnson in 1992 for the WBA middleweight title and then in 1992 he also lost a European middleweight title fight to Sumba Kalambay – another split decision.

It seemed like the boxing Gods and luck were purposefully deserting this Irishman.

In 1994 he was awarded his third world title attempt and this time he made no mistake. It was not like he was unused to winning titles – at home he had 26 of them from his amateur days.

As he got in the ring for attempt three he could reflect on his previous two attempts, the first, against McCallum, came as a late substitute for Michael Watson so he was hardly ready. His second against Johnson had been a hard fought contest and there were still many who were angry at the judge’s cards, believing that Collins had done enough to take the title.

Changes had been made and he had moved to Belfast, heart of the part of Ireland under British rule and joined Matchroom under Barry Hearn. As he stood waiting for the first bell he was more than ready.

In the opposite corner was Chris Pyatt who never saw the 6th round of that fight. Collins was a world champion – but not for long.

This was because Collins gave up his title rather than defend it as he was struggling to make middleweight and needed to move up.

And so he did.

He became a substitute for the WBO title fight at super middleweight against Chris Eubank, 45-3-2, 23 KO’s.

It was around now that the British public, caught in the rivalry between their two darling super middleweights, Nigel Benn, 42-5-1, 31 KO’s, and Chris Eubank, believed that nobody could touch either of them. The country was split between them – often with the majority in the Benn corner. We struggled with Eubank’s stature, his arrogance and his dandiness.

We also like tall poppies to be cut down; enter the Celtic Warrior…

Steve Collins was Eubank’s first defeat. The first fight as mesmeric, the rematch was wild. Eubank could still not deal with the rough house that was Collin’s tactics and Collins beat him again. Collins was to defend his title seven times including two great contests against the other super middleweight of our dream contests – Benn. He beat him twice too making him a name that was to be muttered as a great who came over to the UK to make that name.

What was left was the fight with Roy Jones, JR. he had been chasing or the Joe Calzaghe fight with an up and coming kid who was unlikely to fill stadia at that time but provide another impressive notch on his belt. In preparation for the Calzaghe fight which would have been, of itself, a preparation for the Jones Jr showdown, Collins collapsed in sparring. Although medical personnel could find no issues Collins was sensible enough to listen to the boxing Gods and retire.

It makes the suggested rematch with Nigel Benn – now both in their 50’s – seem even more ridiculous. If the Gods said no more in the 1990’s, then I think they are unlikely to have changed their minds since.

It was a massive roller coaster of a ride for us all in 1990’s and I for one love the memories that have not faded – I would hate for them to become jaded by another fight that saw two old men brawl.

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