Who had the best chin - Steve Collins or Chris Eubank (Senior)?

[coghaugen11]

Eubank recently said Wharton is the one who kind of put an end to his glory days, not Collins. Wharton broke something in him spiritually.

[THEBUTCH]

I don't believe that for one second.

Eubank thrashed Wharton but Collins mastered him twice and completely messed up his mind.

[brilo33]

yea i would agree eubank, funny cause collins gets talked about like he was some punch bag the man was a good boxer he didnt take a loads of shots to the head 2 weight world champion

[liamlion]

I don't believe that for one second.

Eubank thrashed Wharton but Collins mastered him twice and completely messed up his mind.

I thinks that’s an exaggeration.

The first fight saw Collins dropped very heavily. And the second was a split decision win with Collins marauding like a bull in a china shop. And I say this as a huge Collins fans who watched all his fights live that were shown on Sky in the 90s.

[mickey1975]

I know Eubank beat Henry comfortably, but Henry says he heard Chris squeal a few times from body shots. Chris worked for three minutes a round, something he wasn't used to in recent fights.

[brilo33]

I don't believe that for one second.

Eubank thrashed Wharton but Collins mastered him twice and completely messed up his mind.

I thinks that’s an exaggeration.

The first fight saw Collins dropped very heavily. And the second was a split decision win with Collins marauding like a bull in a china shop. And I say this as a huge Collins fans who watched all his fights live that were shown on Sky in the 90s.

well a man called liam you must be of irish stock , i agree they were tough fights problay the last big boxing match i watched with me da and brothers untill he got ill , first was on st pats weekend he was never gonna stop collins i was being obtuse in my first post , collins was tough as anything yea u could knock him down but hed come back again ,he really was the pride of the irish for me loved him my faviourt fighter ever

[liamlion]

I don't believe that for one second.

Eubank thrashed Wharton but Collins mastered him twice and completely messed up his mind.

I thinks that’s an exaggeration.

The first fight saw Collins dropped very heavily. And the second was a split decision win with Collins marauding like a bull in a china shop. And I say this as a huge Collins fans who watched all his fights live that were shown on Sky in the 90s.

well a man called liam you must be of irish stock , i agree they were tough fights problay the last big boxing match i watched with me da and brothers untill he got ill , first was on st pats weekend he was never gonna stop collins i was being obtuse in my first post , collins was tough as anything yea u could knock him down but hed come back again ,he really was the pride of the irish for me loved him my faviourt fighter ever

Yes mate, both parents Irish.

Collins was a huge figure for Irish boxing and brought some big attention. Class fighter and schooled in the hard gyms of America. Old school for sure and a hard man himself

I always wonder how a fighter with him and Joe Calzaghe would have panned out.

[liamlion]

I thinks that’s an exaggeration.

The first fight saw Collins dropped very heavily. And the second was a split decision win with Collins marauding like a bull in a china shop. And I say this as a huge Collins fans who watched all his fights live that were shown on Sky in the 90s.

well a man called liam you must be of irish stock , i agree they were tough fights problay the last big boxing match i watched with me da and brothers untill he got ill , first was on st pats weekend he was never gonna stop collins i was being obtuse in my first post , collins was tough as anything yea u could knock him down but hed come back again ,he really was the pride of the irish for me loved him my faviourt fighter ever

Yes mate, both parents Irish.

Collins was a huge figure for Irish boxing and brought some big attention. Class fighter and schooled in the hard gyms of America. Old school for sure and a hard man himself

I always wonder how a fight with him and Joe Calzaghe would have panned out.

[THEBUTCH]

Not well for Collins! Which is why he blatantly ducked Calzaghe.

[cfang]

Collins was a cunning fighter who had a very solid chin. He was a bit slow though and both benn and Eubank were never the same after the mclellan and Watson fights respectively. I rate calzaghe higher than them and Froch too.

In terms of pure chin I’m going eubank.

[Boxerbeetle]

Not well for Collins! Which is why he blatantly ducked Calzaghe.

Very different stages of their career obviously though. Prime Collins would have been a really difficult fight for Calzaghe, although I still would have backed Joe.

[THEBUTCH]

Calzaghe was very green at that point, by the time Joe was beating Lacy & Kessler, prime Collins & Eubank were not in his class.

[polecateddy]

Not well for Collins! Which is why he blatantly ducked Calzaghe.

Very different stages of their career obviously though. Prime Collins would have been a really difficult fight for Calzaghe, although I still would have backed Joe.

I think early Calzaghe would still have had the punch to get say a 10 round tko. But yes, Calzaghe on one of his bad hands off-nights gets a hard nights work.

[Noxy]

It's ironic that people keep talking about how Collins wanted no part of Calzaghe. You don't hear nearly as much about how people didn't want to fight Collins. He got the McCallum fight as a substitute and Eubank 1. Collins was more avoided than most.
He started his career in the US to get the big fights. Didn't get them, came back to the UK and then he only got into the big time because Ray Close failed his medical.

[polecateddy]

It's ironic that people keep talking about how Collins wanted no part of Calzaghe. You don't hear nearly as much about how people didn't want to fight Collins. He got the McCallum fight as a substitute and Eubank 1. Collins was more avoided than most.
He started his career in the US to get the big fights. Didn't get them, came back to the UK and then he only got into the big time because Ray Close failed his medical.

You could blame his management as he had no profile to speak of in the UK. People didn’t know what to make of him really. He was supposedly battle hardened in America but on the flipside had lost all his big fights. People only realised he was really decent when he won the WBO middleweight title.

[THEBUTCH]

Collins gained attention when he beat Sam Storey (over in the States). Their contest was featured in The Ring magazine with a photo of the action. It should have been obvious from there onwards he was a very good box/fighter.

If Collins was an avoided man himself, which i don't agree with by the way, then he should have been proud enough to defend his title against Calzaghe....but Steve knew what was coming his way IMO.

[polecateddy]

Collins gained attention when he beat Sam Storey (over in the States). Their contest was featured in The Ring magazine with a photo of the action. It should have been obvious from there onwards he was a very good box/fighter.

If Collins was an avoided man himself, which i don't agree with by the way, then he should have been proud enough to defend his title against Calzaghe....but Steve knew what was coming his way IMO.

He looked poor getting off the floor to beat a part-time fireman. A classic Eubank style fight a nobody defence. I think he knew he would have got a pasting against Calzaghe.

[THEBUTCH]

Yep. Collins did his sums and calculated Calzaghe was a no-go !

[Noxy]

Yep. Collins did his sums and calculated Calzaghe was a no-go !

What of it, he's allowed to do that. It doesn't make him a bottle job (which he clearly wasn't). If he had trouble motivating himself for a fight like that instead of a superfight, he's allowed to admit that to himself. And he was avoided earlier in his career, people obviously knew the risk/reward ratio wasn't in their guys' favour. Again that's not a slight on those pros who didn't fight Collins. It's just boxing.

[THEBUTCH]

Collins basked in the reputation of a true hard man and who would box anyone....and lots of people fell for it, because when the shoe was on the other foot and the hunter became the hunted....he went straight through the exit door

[orbtastic]

Didn’t he keep collapsing in sparring? That was the story I remember. The rest is history

[polecateddy]

Didn’t he keep collapsing in sparring? That was the story I remember. The rest is history

I forgot that. Was he possibly just ticking over, maybe considering the Calzaghe fight but then had some collapses. Then he was not seen again until looking a bit puffy and red faced, asking for a showdown with a peak Roy Jones. Ouch!

[orbtastic]

He was chasing that Jones payday. I put it down to business talk. Even benn admitted around that stage Jones was the best talent at the weight.

I googled it because I don’t always like relying on my memories for something from 25 years ago and yeah he collapsed in sparring with Eastman and was taken to hospital, passed his brain scans but decided to walk away.

Eubank was in training for a 175 fight with mark prince and they offered him a short notice vacant title fight with Joe down at 168 which I ended up going to and it felt a bit rushed. I don’t know why really, unless Collins collapsed during the training for the fight with joe. Which is possible, it was so long ago. Anyway yeah the rumours were plural and persistent before he did actually pull out of the fight.

Of course the word ducked was thrown around and ironically the froch/calzaghe situation would mirror it to a degree some years later.

[THEBUTCH]

It came full circle when Calzaghe decided not to accept Froch's challenge. Joe had achieved far more than Collins so IMO it was more plausible.

[polecateddy]

So probably the truth is nobody really ducked anyone just for the sake of it. Collins was having worrying collapses after a long, hard career. And Calzaghe had chronically compromised hands and effectively could no longer spar. I’d imagine the thought of taking on a Team GB superstar wasn’t too enticing after coming through against Jones and Hopkins.