Is Steve Collins greater than Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank?

Sorry yes. Eight losses.

 

Lets not forget Rod Douglas, James Cook and of course Herol Graham. Richie Woodhall was wonderful. There was also Crawford Ashley and Nicky Piper cutting to 168 a few times, and Joe Calzaghe and Dean Francis coming through on fire. Glenn Catley was a good solid infighter :good

Cornelius Carr and Neville Brown weren't too shabby either! Carr especially.

 

And Gary Stretch! A real talent.

 

i liked Dean Francis.

He was a bit slow, but overall i hought he had as much, if not more potential than Calzaghe.Both were very different fighters with almost polar opposite strengths and weaknesses.They could have made for great interesting bouts.

A real shame he ruined his shoulder when he did.

 

Francis would've beaten Calzaghe. No question for me.

 

What people dont realize is that Collins was probably past his prime when he beat Eubank and Benn to.

 

By 96 and 97 you are probably right.He had his own problems by then and Benn being so shot probably covered up how one dimensional he had become himself.

I think he was fine when he was fighting Eubank though.

As a h2h fighter he was definitely at his best at middle though, where he was freakishly huge and more versatile.God knows how he made middle for so long...even at 168 he was massive.

 

Collins is been so underrated here. Thornton, Watts, R.Johnson were fights with real meaning. Pyatt, McCallum, Kallumbay, and we are talking about the others been shop-worn? Collins did it the hard way, no hype, no hand-picked opponents. He had fast hands, good skill-watch the McCallum, Jackson fights- good fighting brain, great chin, unbreakable will, confidence, strength, great stamina. That package takes a lot to beat for certain, somebody of McCallums rank. Benn and Eubanks were good, had some great attributes, great hype and management, but glaring weaknesses too. Overall I cant favour them over Steve.

 

Did you know that back in the 90's, it came down to Gary Stretch vs. Pierce Brosnan for James Bond?

Talk about a major loss on a guy's record! That Eubank beatdown was nothing; his whole life would be different today.

 

And how about Mark Kaylor and Errol Christie?

Funny about Graham, being an American, I had always lumped him and Kalumbay together for some reason. I looked up his record, and outside of a washed up Kalule and Lindell Holmes, he never really beat anyone.

 

No he doesn't rank above Benn or Eubank.

Even if you don't think Benn was shot he wasn't as good as he once was as proven when he lost to Malinga, a fighter he had previously beaten. Personally I think the GMan fight took a lot out of Benn, he wasn't the same.

The Eubank wins were better as while Eubank wasn't at his best he wasn't far off. But Collins had a great style to beat Eubank with his counter punching, durability and work rate, he also got into Eubank's head like nobody had done before. It may very well have been a matter of styles.

Also Eubank was in the middle of a very hectic schedule he was fighting every 2 months prior to the loss which suggests he could have been burnt out as he basically was never out of training camp for a year leading up to the first Collins fight.

 

Yes I always really liked Francis he was in my opinion definitely a world class fighter prior to the shoulder injury. I was certain once he stepped up he was going to win a world title, he had a nice run of wins prior to the injury.

KO'ed Starie who went the distance with Ottke and Calzaghe. KO'ed Sellier who was a solid European level opponent and the KO of Baker who went the distance with Clinton Woods, Starie and Simpson.

I always thought him and Calzaghe would eventually fight and we'd end up with a classic British clash. Their paths seemed destined to cross. Such a shame.

 

He did a highly impressive demolition job on Cornelius Carr, who went the distance with Collins.

 

Nah. The wins over Eubank were good, though most know he wasn't the same after Watson so they're not worth the full shilling. And Benn...he swiped up the dregs of the Dark Destroyer.

 

Yeah I really liked Francis. His power was also underated.
I always thought prime undefeated Reid, vs Francis would have been a real classic match up.
Have you watched Calzaghe vs Francis in the amateurs?
I really think that SMW was alot tougher then, than it is today. I would have favoured fighters like Francis and Starie to beat fighters like Groves today.
dont forget Francis good performance over the underated C Carr