This man only lost three times but went up to Super Middleweight to win the WBO title and twice defeat both Nigel Benn and Chris Eubank. The three guys that beat him were Reggie Johnson, Mike MC Callum and Sumbu Kalambay but after losing to those three guys he went undefeated for five years before retiring. The man was never stopped in his whole pro career.
The 3 guys who beat him were top quality. McCallum a legend, Kalambay a super boxer who beat McCallum, Johnson a quality middle who is the only man to legitimately floor and hurt James Toney in his entire career. Yes when Eubank and Benn fought him they were well past-prime, but they (esp Eubank) still had enough about them to make them difficult to beat. Collins had a granite chin and was very very strong. I would've loved to have seen him v Calzaghe in '97 for the title instead of Calzaghe v Eubank. I would've fancied the Celtic Warrior to beat a green Joe.
I actually remember back then when Calzaghe was calling out Collins. I was thinking at the time "Who the **** is this ****, no one can beat Collins" Personally, I think Calzaghe would of edged it. Very tight and hard fought match, but Collins was slipping at that stage and the only fight that would of kept him in the game would of been RJJ. I think Calzaghe may of been just too energetic for him. I agree with you though, would of looked better on JC's resume to of won the WBO against the champ instead of beating Eubank for a vacant title. Who would you favour between Kessler and Collins?
collins was an animal i train at his brothers gym every wednesday, nice gym that has only recently been opened, i think steve helped him with some funds
he totally spooked eubank in his first fight by telling the press he'd been hypnotised to not feel pain. then while eubank made his entrance he just sat in his corner with eyes shut,headphones on, celtic music blaring out. it totally threw eubank off as his head was ****ed from nearly killing michael watson. there were a couple of times where he had collins in trouble but just stopped, looking at the ref to stop the fight, giving collins time to recover. not that he needed it, collins could take a beating. at the end it turned out he hadnt been hypnotised at all, it was a ploy that certainly worked.
His fight with Kalambay is a favourite of mine. For an old washed up fighter, some of the defensive work Done in this fight was truly exceptional. A lot of collins fans, including him have tried to revise it into a robbery(as well as the Johnson fight)but steve got taken to school that night.
Steve Collins beat an undefeated Eubank, lest we forget. However another thread I've posted in is about the unimportance of 0's so I won't feed into that. Collins beat Eubank twice, past his prime maybe, but still a world class fighter at the time. He also stopped Nigel Benn twice (never easy regardless of his age) and won the WBO middleweight and supermiddleweight titles finishing his career without being stopped. That's a pretty impressive CV to me, and if Barry McGuigan is HOF-worthy then surely Steve Collins is aswell!!!
Collins was very average and was no match for Eubank in the first fight but got Lucky because Eubank was to worried about killing him. As for the Benn fights everyone knows Benn was washed up by then and that victory means nothing.