The Dubliner - at the end of a tough but successful career - famously said "thanks, but no thanks" to a defence against the hot, undefeated property that was Joe Calzaghe in 1998.
I did not begrudge Steve that for a moment.
He'd fought nearly everyone out there - quite often on the road - and his attritional style had a shelf-life and especially for a guy who was already into his thirties. He had paid his dues and some
Why get punched hard in the face by someone as potentially dangerous as the much-younger, southpaw Calzaghe and also for a comparatively modest pay cheque? The risks were high, the rewards relatively slim.
But here is the thing.....what if Collins had vacated the title, taken a much-needed rest and recouped. And then revisited a Calzaghe who had the title and who was also a far more commercially viable opponent?
Joe was far from the finished article in a window after the Eubank win - he sometimes badly disappointed in defences and Rob Reid took him very close indeed - so what does a rested, reinvograted Collins do in say late 1999 or early 2000 when Joe is still to a degree learning all the ropes to be a champion?
I think he takes Joe very close indeed and it is a very rough as you like night for the Welsh superstar.
Collins was brutally strong, seasoned and determined and he got himself into fights and often confounded the experts who pontificated that he was too crude and booked for a beating.
If we stretch the case some more .... the fight ends up in Dublin, outside at Croke Park and Collins is being roared on?
