Collins vs Froch

We cannot say Steve Collins would have got rid of Froch at all. Froch God bless him is as durable as they come. Whilst you think Froch could potentially win, he has displayed some technical limitations while Collins from his time in America had developed real technical know how. I would have to go Collins by decision.

 

You are right, Froch is durable and would bring it, but I think Collins would be inclined to try and get Carl out of there, and in turn by trying to knock Collins out he'd put himself in harms way.

Collins by decision would be the smart bet, and the probable outcome, but a stoppage wouldn't be out of the question.

 

The outcomes could've been different depending on the stages of their careers. I think the Collins early on who went to America would've given Froch plenty of chances of doing well on the outside. That Collins didn't start well in fights and hadn't figured out his identity as a fighter yet.

What happened was, Collins struggled somewhat with a fighter named Kevin Watts. Watts wasn't anything to right home about, just a decent fighter. Even though Collins was the underdog he was expecting to role over Watts in his mind. He was dropped on his way to winning a decision. For most of his career before that he was a constant come forward mauler, which was his main strength.

Collins was a huge admirer of Marvin Hagler. So he wanted the same Hagler formula. That meant going with the Petronelli brothers. Now, the Petronelli's were good guys to be with generally, but they were very poor tactician and really misjudged strategies. After the Watts fight, on the advise of the Petronelli's, Stevie changed his style and adopted a more boxer-puncher approach, trying to counter puncher and not leading as much as he did before.

I believe this had a big impact on him losing some big fights. The Reggie Johnson and Mike McCallum fights he was trying to counter punch and then when that didn't work he wasn't crossing the danzer zone effectively, he was confused and didn't know how to approach it, which lead to recklessness. It wasn't his game! later on he would know what he was all about. He made a terrible start against McCallum IIRC. Was 4 rounds down before he even got started.

I believe if Froch fought THAT Collins then he would have a good chance. Anything after that when Collins figured out his identity and became more seasoned then i think he would beat Froch, maybe even handily.

 

Froch is underrated now cos he has been beaten. This is so typical of ESB.

 

Collins would be more busy and would shade it; split decision.

 

Always have a little giggle when people do that. lol

 

Pretty sure you can hear one of the Petronelli's ranting at him to "box like kalambay" during the fight with McCallum.

They definitely weren't right for him.I did prefer the more complete boxer-puncher-brawler approach he had after that fight though, compared to the pure swarming "march forward constantly winging ridiculously telegraphed bombs and then clinching" he adopted from the Eubank rematch on.

It was a good style to beat a drained Eubank and faded Benn with a minimum of fuss, but i doubt it works against better fighters.Steve didn't have the power for it.

 

Yep. He went the other way. You can't blame him though, the first approach lost him some fights. He changed to his strength and it worked so he went overboard with it.

 

1- 10-10
2- Collins
3- Collins
4- Reggie
5- 9-9 (fouls)
6- Collins
7- Collins
8- Reggie
9- Reggie
10- Reggie
11- Collins
12- Collins

 

See that's why i like people posting their scorecards. I can see why you came to that conclusion now although i don't agree with it in totality.

It was a foul filled fight at times. That's one of the things i remember about it. It meant so much to both men though.

They were both on the comeback after dissapointing loses and it was kind of make or break. Johnson could've edged the Toney fight, that was controversial and Collins got it wrong early against McCallum but was coming on. The scene was set and i think that desperation added to all fouls, plus the styles of course.

I gave the first to Johnson, agree on the next three.

The 5th was a mess and could be scored 9-8. With the low blows and elbows and point deductions. No problem with 9-9.

Agree with six.

7 to 10 i gave Johnson.

11 was Collins, but 12th could've gone either way, Johnson did seem to gass a little in the championship round, but Collins wasn't that effective either. That's how i remember it. I'll watch it back later and give more conclusive thoughts.

 

This was one of the few times in his career Johnson got the break after a close fight.Toney, Castro, JD Jackson and others all went against him, some maybe outright dubiously.

 

I thought he beat Toney, Reggie.

 

I think the best result would've been a draw tbh.

 

There was 3 or 4 INCREDIBLY hard rounds to score in that fight IIRC. Mahn, i need to watch all these fights again.

 

I just remember Reggie being streets ahead after five rounds against Toney, scoring that KD early.