What has age got to do with it? Benn was past it. You really think the Benn that beat McClellan was the same fighter against Collins? Collins was lucky to have an impressive record on paper, he was nothing special.
that old romantic bollocks! Benn didnt seem to have a problem knocking out Nardiello a couple of month after the McClellan fight did he?
Nardiello was not very good and Benn didn't even look good in that fight for a long period. You've obviously never seen it. But yeah okay, Benn was at his prime against Collins :nut
Exactly, he was 'okay'. Solid fighter, great chin, he was tough as hell. But ultimately he was pretty ordinary. I thought he was forunate to get one of the decisions against Eubank in Ireland, I consider him 1-1 with Eubank who was prone to inconsistency whereas Collins was consistent which made the difference. He dug up the corpse of Benn twice. So his record looks really quite impressive but if you know the context its not quite as good.
I read an interview post-retirement with Collins once where he said that Bernard Hopkins wasn't worthy enough to lace up his boots... or words to that effect. It kind of stuck in my memory. You're right... Collins was a tough, hard *******. Gritty workmanlike fighter who is over-rated these days mainly because of those wins against Benn & Eubank who had knocked seven bells out of each other.
I'm no real fan of Collins to be honest - but I actually think he is underrated by Brits and like to point out the facts to them. His four victories over Eubank and Benn are ALWAYS overlooked by Brits who make excuses that dont actually stack up. Eubank was unbeaten when Collins beat he and Collins was older than Eubank and arguably had been in harder fights as well! Benn and Collins were the same age and Brits always say that Benn was past his prime - but to be fair at that stage Collins had been through just as main if not more wars then Benn had including 24 rounds with Chris Eubank and 12 with each of Sumbu Kalambay, Reggie Johnson, Mike McCallum and Kevin Watts! I actually think both Benn and Eubank were vastly overrated - great entertainment but vastly overrated!
yeah I was talking to this English guy and he said that Witter and Woods were worthy champions and Hatton was going to knockout out Mayweather! Funny guys, funny guys!!!