Steve Collins

Stephen Collins was born on July 21, 1964, in Cabra, Ireland. He began his professional boxing career in October 1986, fighting primarily in the United States. Collins trained at the Petronelli Brothers gym in Brockton, Massachusetts, alongside Marvin Hagler. His debut fight was against Julio Mercado, where he secured a knockout victory in the third round. Early in his career, Collins achieved 26 Irish amateur titles before turning professional. In 1988, he won the Irish middleweight title by defeating Sam Storey in Boston. The following year, he claimed the regional American USBA middleweight title by beating Kevin Watts, successfully defending it in Atlantic City and Las Vegas. Collins challenged for the WBA middleweight title twice, losing to Mike McCallum in 1990 and Reggie Johnson in 1992. He also contested the European middleweight title in 1992, where he lost to Sumbu Kalambay in Italy, before winning the WBA Penta-Continental middleweight title against Gerhard Botes in 1993.

Collins reached the pinnacle of his career in his early 30s. In May 1994, he won his first world title, the WBO middleweight championship, with a fifth-round TKO victory over Chris Pyatt. Collins later relinquished this title due to difficulty making the 160lbs middleweight limit. In March 1995, he moved up to super-middleweight to face the undefeated Chris Eubank, securing the WBO super-middleweight title in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland, by unanimous decision. This fight gained additional notoriety due to pre-fight claims of Collins using hypnotism. Later that year, in September, Collins successfully defended his title against Eubank in a rematch in Cork, winning by a split decision. The film “One Night in Millstreet” chronicles the events of the March 1995 fight with Eubank.

Over the next two years, Collins successfully defended his WBO super-middleweight title six more times, including two victories against Nigel Benn in 1996. He retired from boxing in July 1997, after withdrawing from a scheduled fight against Joe Calzaghe. Collins expressed frustration at his inability to secure a fight with Roy Jones Jr., a boxer he had long sought to face. In 1999, he announced a brief comeback attempt to fight Jones Jr., but retired again after collapsing during a sparring session, attributing it to a warning to stop boxing. Collins concluded his professional career with 36 wins (21 by knockout) and 3 losses from 39 fights. In 2025, he was inducted into the Atlantic City Boxing Hall of Fame. Post-retirement, Collins has appeared in films such as “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” (1998) and a U2 music video (1999). In 2014, he joined the British Army Reserves, transferring to the 253 Provost Company of the 4th Regiment Royal Military Police in 2017, where he achieved the rank of Lance Corporal and qualified as an army boxing coach.