Steve Collins: The Celtic Warrior

Born in Cabra, Ireland on July 21st, 1964, Steve "The Celtic Warrior" Collins didn't look like much by what for most middleweight boxers would have been the peak of his career. In his late 20s, he was a respectable contender, but few would have picked him to become the last man standing of the Britain's exciting 1990s middleweight scene. Yet that is exactly what he became. "Irish" Steve Collins proved to be a tough, consistent boxer who kept improving through his career, and closed as the last champion of the golden age of British middleweights by dint of his sheer perseverance.

Unlike many an Irish boxer, at the end of his stint as an amateur boxer Steve Collins moved immediately to the United States to pursue his professional boxing career, thereby side-stepping the European scene entirely. His pro debut was a 1986 knockout in Lowell, Massachusetts, and he trained in the same gym as middleweight demi-god Marvelous Marvin Hagler. Vaulting quickly up the rankings through a string of 13 victories in New England and the Mid-Atlantic, he won the Irish middleweight title in 1988 (in Boston, strangely enough). Then Collins won a 1989 big points victory over fringe contender Kevin Watts to capture USBA title (a regional belt), overcoming an 11th round knockdown from a body shot. He was 25 and he had arrived.

Standing 6 feet tall with a 71" reach, Steve Collins was a swarmer. His style was to apply pressure through a rugged determination to go forward and throw punches in bunches. An all-action style like that is a sure crowd pleaser, although it does require a measure of skill to apply properly if one is to become anything more than a plodding brawler. Steve Collins was a consummate gym rat, and kept learning the tricks of his trade right up until the last years of his career.

The Contender
Steve Collins defended the title with a close win over fringe contender Tony Thorton before going on to make his first world title challenge against WBA Middleweight Champion Mike "The Bodysnatcher" McCallum. McCallum had only one loss to his name, was vastly more experienced, and one of the most dangerous customers in the division. He dominated Collins in a smooth boxing clinic, kept his title, and handed Collins his first loss. Yet with his blue collar work ethic, the Irishman would use the defeat as a learning experience. Future boxers would find it much harder to out-finesse Collins.

The Celtic Warrior plied the comeback trail with six wins before challenging for a world title again, this time against 30-2-1 Reggie Johnson in April 1992 for the vacant WBA strap. Johnson had lost only one fight since the earliest days of his career, a close loss to James Toney, and after a rough patch in his career would go on later to win a light heavyweight title. Having grown from his McCallum loss, Collins fought the slick southpaw to within a hair of victory. Reggie Johnson boxed out a Majority Decision, but on a margin of 115-113, 114-114, and 115-114. Both men lost a point for low blows in the 5th, so take that foul away from Collins or give Collins one more round and that fight becomes a Draw.

Collins then went on to another big fight in October, this time against McCallum-tamer Sumbu Kalambay for the European Middleweight Title. In only his third fight outside of the U.S., the Irishman took on the Congolese Kalambay in his adopted homeland of Italy and once again fought the slick boxer to within a hair of victory. However, Kalambay came away from the close fight with a hometown nod from the judges.

The Champion
Having lost all three of his big fights against world class opponents did not deter Collins, but it did force him to adjust his career path. In addition to having been stymied in his fights with American-based middleweights, Collins and his team were also aware that the center of gravity for big fights in the division had shifted to the UK, where a golden era of boxing was taking place. The Celtic Warrior's first comeback fight was in Cardiff, and all of the five wins over journeymen and tomato cans that followed were made in the UK.

In May 1994, Steve Collins climbed through the ropes in Sheffield to fight Englishman 42-3 Chris Pyatt, who was making his 3rd defense of the WBO Middleweight Title. However, Pyatt has never really defeated an opponent of note, and Collins made short work of him, producing a 5th Round stoppage. Just like that, the Celtic Warrior was a world champion. However, Collins did not keep his long-awaited title long. He had bigger fish to fry. Collins moved up to 168 lbs. and gunned for the biggest name of all the British middleweights: Chris "Simply the Best" Eubank.

41-0-2, Eubank had reigned as either the WBO 160 lbs. or WBO 168 lbs. champion for more than five years with almost 20 combined defenses. He had never been beaten and was only 28 years old, but Collins became the first man to beat him and for three reasons. First, Eubank had never been quite the same after almost killing Michael Watson in the ring, and become shy about pulling the trigger and using his full punching power. If he wasn't willing to put serious hurt on a guy like Steve Collins, he would never be able to slow him down enough to beat him. Second, Collins won the mind game with Eubank, who was famous for upsetting his opponents. Claiming that he couldn't be beat and had been hypnotized into a place beyond pain, and all that talk spooked Eubank. Finally, Eubank liked to fight for 2 minutes total in a round, using the remainder to rest and probe his opponent. Collins' style was tailor-made to upset that game plan. Eubank was sent to the canvas in the 8th, and although he bounced back to drop Collins (granite chin and all) in the 11th, it was Collins who won a clean decision before an Irish crowd in Milstreet.

The rematch came in September 1995. This time Collins was so confident that he came out trying to take Eubank's head clear off his shoulders, and at one point almost Collins almost threw himself out of the ring in the attempt. It was a much closer fight, with Eubank working harder and making better use of his skills. However, he still wasn't willing to punch with fury and could not keep up with Collins' pace. Collins won the rematch with a Split Decision.

After an easy second title defense, the Celtic Warrior met a comebacking Nigel Benn, the Dark Destroyer in 1996. Easily the most feared puncher of his generation of British fighters, Collins said Benn hit so hard it was like "his shots were breaking my teeth." However, like Eubank, Benn was damaged goods. He had been both physically and emotionally shattered in a hard fight with Gerald McClellan that left the other man a cripple. In their first meeting Benn twisted his ankle, resulting in a stoppage. In their second, Benn found himself unable to keep up with Collins' pace and quit on his stool after the 6th.

By this time, Collins was angling for a big money fight with Roy Jones, Jr. However, that fight never materialized. After a pair of successful defenses in 1997, Collins was 33 years old and feeling his wear and tear. He was also aware of a rising slugger from Wales named Joe Calzaghe. Collins has never admitted to ducking Calzaghe, but he has gone on the record as saying he had no more big fights on the horizon that were worth the money, including Calzaghe, who was relatively unknown at the time. Having finally achieved pugilistic success, Steve Collins hung up the gloves in mid-1997 with a record of 36-3 with 21 KOs.

Retirement and Legacy
Jones changed his mind and began dropping hints that he might want to fight Collins in 1999. Collins came out of retirement and began training for a projected comeback against Joe Calzaghe, but collapsed during sparring. On his doctor's advice, Collins went back into retirement and stayed there. However, Collins has said of Roy Jones that he spent so long chasing him that he would fight him for free "in a phone box in front of two men and a dog."

Steve Collins now lives with his family in St. Albans, UK. He is occasionally embarrassed by the antics of his brother Roddy Collins, a media commentator and former professional soccer club manager. He remains a popular figure in Ireland, however, and has made a string of small appearances in U2 music videos and films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Collins stood as a good champion, but not a great one. He weathered the mid-stages of his career better than Eubank or Benn, and this enabled him to outlast the two men when he entered the British super middleweight sweepstakes. He is noteworthy for a few reasons. First, he is one of the few fighters to have stood in both the American and British middleweight pools of his era. These two groups rarely mixed, due to a variety of promotional difficulties. Second, many consider him to be the greatest Irish boxer of all time, a high compliment in so pugilistic a nation. Third, he was the last man standing in what is widely thought of as the golden age of British middleweight boxing.

Sources: live fight footage; Dark Trade; boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=000645&cat=boxer; secondsout.com/uk-boxing-news/uk-boxing-news/steve-collins-the-best-irish-boxer-ever; guardian.co.uk/sport/2004/nov/25/smalltalk.sportinterviews; news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/boxing/2525421.stm