Collins never fought at Light Heavyweight. He was mainly at 160 lbs then at 168 lbs near the end of his career. Harding, while not very skilled, was very strong. McCallum who also moved up, was able to beat him. He was slicker than Collins though. I think Harding would use his strength to pressure Collins and win a close decision.
Collins was huge though.God knows how he ever made 160, as even at 168 he was massive. I think he could easily have handled light-heavy from a physical point of view.Certainly better than a paunchy old McCallum. I think he could beat Harding clearly if he used his full range of skills(awkward as they may have been) as he was the more versatile and skilled of the two, while being very tough.If he just swarmed forward as he had started to do from the Eubank rematch on, then this would be a tough brutal fight as Collins was no puncher.Harding was an unskilled toiler that took punches as flush to the face consistently as almost any world champion i've seen, but he was teak tough and threw plenty of punches...a much harder proposition to swarm than a weight-drained poor workrate Eubank or a washed up Benn.
