BoxRec

Anyone know much about former British welterweight George Collins (1985-89)?
He went 35-0 (24 KOS) before losing to Gary Jacobs, then Kirkland Laing and hung up his gloves just after turning 22.

A highly decorated amateur with a 77-1 record with his only loss to Gary Stretch. Apparently Collins was 67-0 as an amateur before losing.

Anyone know why he retired so young?

Was the next big thing. But he seemed to plateau before hitting his peak. Maybe too many fights. Also there was a rumour he was older. No idea if it was true.

Are they still around? Done ok for themselves? I guess they are living on site

mercman wrote: ↑17 Apr 2020, 15:32

Controversial wrote: ↑17 Apr 2020, 15:20 Anyone know much about former British welterweight George Collins (1985-89)?
He went 35-0 (24 KOS) before losing to Gary Jacobs, then Kirkland Laing and hung up his gloves just after turning 22.

A highly decorated amateur with a 77-1 record with his only loss to Gary Stretch. Apparently Collins was 67-0 as an amateur before losing.

Anyone know why he retired so young?

Turned pro very young - 17 (supposedly) and was meant to be the next big thing but never really kicked on after racking up a series of quick wins and eventually got found out at British level.

The Laing stoppage was, I remember, pretty devastating. I don't think Collins had anywhere to go after that.

George Collins had two brothers - Tony and Ben - who both also turned pro and retired very young.

Cheers, also your 10,000 post

mercman wrote: ↑17 Apr 2020, 15:32

Controversial wrote: ↑17 Apr 2020, 15:20 Anyone know much about former British welterweight George Collins (1985-89)?
He went 35-0 (24 KOS) before losing to Gary Jacobs, then Kirkland Laing and hung up his gloves just after turning 22.

A highly decorated amateur with a 77-1 record with his only loss to Gary Stretch. Apparently Collins was 67-0 as an amateur before losing.

Anyone know why he retired so young?

Turned pro very young - 17 (supposedly) and was meant to be the next big thing but never really kicked on after racking up a series of quick wins and eventually got found out at British level.

The Laing stoppage was, I remember, pretty devastating. I don't think Collins had anywhere to go after that.

George Collins had two brothers - Tony and Ben - who both also turned pro and retired very young.

10,000

Separates the men from they boys!

he did appear older than he was,unfortunately for him he met a very on form Kirkland Laing.

He had a cracking scrap with Jacobs and just came up short. I remember his brother Tony better, the long-haired teenager who was on Midweek Sports Special a few times. He was a good fighter but his chin was always a bit suspect. I never saw Ben in action, although there was some talk about his potential.

It seems all three of them had bags of potential, turned pro as soon as they could and retired really young. As to what they got up to post-boxing, no idea.

I remember maybe ESPN or Euro Sport showing late 80s boxing and there was a Terry Collins as a prospect on there I assume no relation but similar era.

Yep, so much hype behind George on the way up, but you have to say that having him face Laing straight after a grueling loss to Jacobs looks like mental match-making from where I'm standing. You can see how that could have wrecked his confidence and finished him off, even at a young age.

I remember Tony being hyped quite a bit as well and he came across as very arrogant(if my memory's correct he was boasting about getting the better of Eubank in sparring), but found his level with a couple of tear-ups with Argentinian boxer Ricardo Nunez - he won them both, but it was pretty clear he wasn't destined for world class, as Wally Swift Jr proved shortly afterwards. Career over at 22 after being TKO'ed in 3 by hardman Andy Till.

As an aside, and as a follow-on from the Honeyghan appreciation thread, I do feel Gary Jacobs never really gets his dues. Involved in some cracking fights and definitely fringe world-class.

My trainer use to always talk about these Brother to me when I was Growing up, how good there were, won all the Championships etc.. George had 37 fights in 4 years thats some going.

mercman wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 04:45

bigjack wrote: ↑17 Apr 2020, 15:48 he did appear older than he was,unfortunately for him he met a very on form Kirkland Laing.

Heard various rumors about George Collins being older than he was. Apparently, he was driving himself to amateur shows when he was meant to be 15!

I don't know how true the thing about his age was but it does seem a bit unusual to turn pro as a welterweight at 17 and still be at the same weight five years later. Normally you fill out quite a bit in your late teens and early 20s.

Looking back now i'd say he could have been 4 or 5 years older than we thought when he retired

Controversial wrote: ↑17 Apr 2020, 15:20 Anyone know much about former British welterweight George Collins (1985-89)?
He went 35-0 (24 KOS) before losing to Gary Jacobs, then Kirkland Laing and hung up his gloves just after turning 22.

A highly decorated amateur with a 77-1 record with his only loss to Gary Stretch. Apparently Collins was 67-0 as an amateur before losing.

Anyone know why he retired so young?

You must have read my mind, I was going to ask the very same thing...

I was rooting around the loft last weekend when I came across the Barry Hugman boxing annual from 1988 which had George Collins on the back which made me wonder why he didn’t do much more in a career that looked so promising.

Little research, seems to be doing ok for himself, runs his own paving business in Yately

Old bones Ian wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 06:28 Little research, seems to be doing ok for himself, runs his own paving business in Yately

Me too! Fair play to the bloke.

Good domestic level fighter with good wins over Del Bryan and Chris Blake. Blake pushed him hard and gave us an inkling George may not surpass British/Commonwealth level. That said George challenged two exceptional champions in Jacobs & Laing, and took Jacobs close before getting decked in the last round and having to hang on to hear the final bell. Good fight

ITV's "Seconds Out" screened a fair few of Collins' fights on his way through. Good skills and a solid dig in either hand.

Shame Collins packed it in after the Laing loss because there were other cracking fights for him. He was was supposed to box Rocky Kelly at one stage of his career. Posters were printed up and everything but it fell through sadly.

Old bones Ian wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 06:28 Little research, seems to be doing ok for himself, runs his own paving business in Yately

Where did you find that bud?

Londonirish wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 03:17 My trainer use to always talk about these Brother to me when I was Growing up, how good there were, won all the Championships etc.. George had 37 fights in 4 years thats some going.

There was loads of talk of both of them being a lot older than they claimed which would explain the success at junior level ,I don't know but from what I remember George especially looked older than his claimed 17/18 years . good neat box fighters nothing flash

paddy chavez wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 08:13

Londonirish wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 03:17 My trainer use to always talk about these Brother to me when I was Growing up, how good there were, won all the Championships etc.. George had 37 fights in 4 years thats some going.

There was loads of talk of both of them being a lot older than they claimed which would explain the success at junior level ,I don't know but from what I remember George especially looked older than his claimed 17/18 years . good neat box fighters nothing flash

Yes he certainly didn’t look in his early 20’s, especially with that moustache. Were they from the traveling community?

Controversial wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 08:26

paddy chavez wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 08:13

There was loads of talk of both of them being a lot older than they claimed which would explain the success at junior level ,I don't know but from what I remember George especially looked older than his claimed 17/18 years . good neat box fighters nothing flash

Yes he certainly didn’t look in his early 20’s, especially with that moustache. Were they from the traveling community?

Travellers I believe.

Fearful_Freddie wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 08:29

Controversial wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 08:26

Yes he certainly didn’t look in his early 20’s, especially with that moustache. Were they from the traveling community?

Travellers I believe.

This was always the thing with boxing traveler's as kids you never knew their true age so a good trainer would be very sceptical about matching their kid with a traveler ,
I had Ted Bami come to my amateur club when he was 15 he was from Cameroon and he looked 23 very muscler and strong I would spar with him I was 22 because he was so strong maybe he was 15 but he was stronger than anyone I'd been in with . we'd turn up a shows and trainers would pull their kids out when they saw him and wisely so

Shhhh wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 09:33 Never understood the hype. He never looked that good. Also all his fights amateur were junior were he was unbeaten... like 75 fights. But he was prob older by a year or two so had a massive advantage. Gary stretch did him in one round in his an only first senior contest but he got hyped so much despite that. Used to be in telly all the time but never rated him. Warren got this one really wrong I bet he learned a thing or 2

To be fair to go 12 rounds with Gary Jacobs you have to be fairly decent

To be fair guys, just because he looked old doesn’t mean much. I remember 13 year olds at school who looked way older, I‘m sure you do too. The facial hair doesn’t mean anything either. Some kids just develop fast.

Noxy wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 09:42 To be fair guys, just because he looked old doesn’t mean much. I remember 13 year olds at school who looked way older, I‘m sure you do too. The facial hair doesn’t mean anything either. Some kids just develop fast.

This is true, I remember one lad in secondary school who had full facial hair and looked 18 when we were 13

Controversial wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 09:50

Noxy wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 09:42 To be fair guys, just because he looked old doesn’t mean much. I remember 13 year olds at school who looked way older, I‘m sure you do too. The facial hair doesn’t mean anything either. Some kids just develop fast.

This is true, I remember one lad in secondary school who had full facial hair and looked 18 when we were 13

Same here, one kid in our junior school had hairs all over his body. His nickname was caveman.

mercman wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 12:35

milpool wrote: ↑18 Apr 2020, 11:43

Same here, one kid in our junior school had hairs all over his body. His nickname was caveman.

Some kids do look older than others and a mustache can add to the effect ('taches were fashionable back then). But staying at welterweight all those years - I mean, who's the same weight at 22 as when they were when they were 17?

I guess it's not impossible, Collins wasn't short and he did go over the WW limit in a few fights. Wilfred Benitez weighed 145 in a fight aged 16 and was 144 in a fight aged 21. Cuevas was a WW aged 15 until he was 23