Freddie Roach on RJJ-Steve Collins

okay, no one is claiming there are no cultural links and apologies if my response sounded very re-active. in fairness collins is always included in that "great period of british super middleweights". calzaghe even refers to him as a british super middleweight in his auto biography.

collins isn't the only irish fighter that falls into this category. i've seen barry mcguigan introduced on a question of sport as "one of the greatest fighters this country ever produced"- the guy was born in clones in monaghan.

just last year i saw a blogger on ring.tv describe how two UK fighters (khan and dunne) had suffered 1st round KO's & gone on to win world titles. dunne again is from dublin and never even fought in britain as a pro.

i could go on and on, generally the guy is recognised as being irish until he gets succesful then he's claimed by britain (watch this space for mccloskey, lindsay & magee in 2011) and should they happen to fall from grace they become irish again. jack doyle possibly being the prime example.

it's not restricted to boxing either- george best is described as britains best ever footballer but when it comes to discussing his alcolohism he's a crazy irishman!!!!

RANT OVER....

 

george best was british though to be fair

c/s the rest

 

the johnson fight could have gone either way, it was a pity collins got dragged into a bit of niggling and got a point deducted. incidentally collins was only ever beaten in title fights and was never stopped. the attached link shows him calling out jones as early as 1995- fast forward to 6:20;

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxf82Uvo_v8[/ame]

 

Prime Roy would have had a fairly easy night with Collins, Eubank and even Benn (as much as it hurts me to say it). Roy was on another level to anybody at 168.

 

RJj in his prime was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too fast for a prime Collins. I agree that Collins probably wouldn't have been KO'd because he was a tough ****er but I cannot see RJj losing more than two rounds at the worst.

Now a prime RJJ vs James DeGale is another thing altogether.

 

ireland was ruled by britain from 1159 up to 1921. the southern part of ireland gained a relative degree of independence in 1921 and the north of ireland still remains under british rule. in 1948 the south was declared a republic and cut all formal ties with britain.

 

Jones beat much better fighters than Collins such as the great James Toney including guys who beat Collins like Reggie Johnson. Collins was a game lad but is also overrated. He was not a great fighter.