I think Collins should be cut some slack here. Ok, he lost to 3 pretty good fighters, all title fights. Right after the Kalambay loss, he wins his next 15 fights, 9 of which are title fights, then retired. Not bad at all in my book. Dont think Eubank could complain about his loss. Tight,yes, but i thought Collins shaded it although i wouldnt argue with anyone over it. Seen Eubank beat by Close and not getting the decision in scotland, so swings and roundabouts and all that. As for the health problems, i cant vouch for the validity but ive heard (like many others on here) that Eastman knocked him clean out in sparring
Collins sparred Eastman in '99 (at the Lennox Lewis gym in London) preparing for the Roy Jones fight, and according to all involved Eastman landed a nothing-shot on the top of Steve's head with an 18oz glove in the first 30 seconds and Collins collapsed dramatically. Jimmy Tibbs and Ronnie Davies, who were supervising, called the ambulance service right away and Steve went to hospital. They were said to be petrified (those two were ringside when Michael Watson was injured..).
Collins is an underrated technical boxer and counter puncher and he was good but he got a shot Benn (shadow on brain, damaged kidneys) and a past prime Eubank who was still good. Eubank also has a good shout for 1 of those decisions This did happen, but wasn't it meant to be Collins-Calzaghe and then the winner fights Jones? That's what I read. When Jones wanted to go head to head with Collins after a HBO fight to promote their prospective fight, HBO wouldn't let Collins in the picture and they demanded he fought Reggie Johnson instead
At first yeah, and then it was agreed on Collins-Jones straight off the bat because Collins said he didn't need a warm-up and Jones wanted out of boxing (said he'd retire after Collins fight). [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0Erh4RKbHE[/ame]
I think Collins was just looking to cash out then, which would make sense, no way would RJJ retire, he says allot of things, maybe he was trying to get leverage by saying he was retiring. I'm wondering if Collins-Jones was actually agreed, Jones invites him to be ringside, Collins starts a training camp for RJJ and gets knocked out badly by Eastman but I remember HBO did prefer Reggie J over Collins. It's funny because he had an iron chin throughout his career
Benn may of been over the hill when he fought Collins 0 but Collins jsut wanted to tough it out with him - Collins took some amazing shots off Benn and didnt budge. This would have been very close had they both been in their primes
He returned to his native land just about the time the WBO was handing out belts to folks who could generate money more than those most deserving. In his fights against true world-class fighters in or around their primes (including Kalumbay), he was game but outclassed. When he got in with the over-the-hill gang of Eubank and Benn and some guys with nicely padded records for easy WBO defenses, well, what do you expect. Tough guy. I liked him. Just not a world-beater in my opinion.