Collins stays on track

STEVE COLLINS remains on track but only just. After a less than impressive performance in the London Arena on Saturday night against Frederic Seillier he retained his World Boxing Organisation super-middleweight title when Las Vegan referee Joe Cortex stopped the fight because Seillier suffered a severe cut to his right eye

In spite of insistence earlier in the week that he was fully tuned up for this challenge Collins looked sluggish and sloppy in the early part of the fight and a better opponent than Seillier might have taken advantage of that. Even so it is difficult to criticise Collins who is now, by a very long way, the best boxer in the history of Irish sport.

This was his sixth successful defence of his super-middleweight title and if it was less spectacular than his dual defeats of Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn, it was, nevertheless, a significant step on his oft-declared ambition to be recognised as the best boxer of his weight in the world.

Cynics will say, in fact they have said, that boxing at this level is now much more to do with television rights, satellites and big business than with the sport itself. This cannot just be dismissed as cynicism.

Not long after Collins had clearly proved, beyond all doubt, that he has to be regarded as a realistic contender for the undisputed world title there was talk that Roy Jones from the US was considering a challenge from Thomas Hearns.

Nobody will deny that Hearns was a great world champion but, as far as can be ascertained, he hasn't boxed seriously for several years. A match between him and Jones would, therefore, be a mere money-making gimmick.

Little wonder then that Collins told the London Arena attendance that Jones was behaving like a coward and that he (Collins) was going to knock on his front door and challenge him out to fight on the street if necessary.

Such publicity-seeking stunts are neither new to boxing nor to Collins whose dalliance with a hypnotist, an Irish wolfhound and a shillelagh are well documented.

Nevertheless it is easy to understand Collins' frustration. Throughout his career, indeed his life, Collins has taken risks which many have advised against. Not a very impressive amateur international, he stayed on in the United States after a visit there with an Irish team and pursued his dream.

He took on Mike McCallum when few others would and went the distance, he defied a number of different promoters, he took on such British boxing icons as Eubank and Benn. His is, not to put too fine a point on it, his own man, responsible to nobody but himself, his family and his dream.

It is easy then, given that context, to understand why his mind may have been elsewhere when he took on Seillier. Such an approach has its dangers and Collins would be well advised not to repeat it too often.

A man of steely mind as well as body, Collins, should be wary of taking too many risks. Collins is getting no younger and this is probably why he feels so determined to face down Jones in the ring or, failing that, on his own doorstep.

Collins is now in a very healthy financial position. His future secured, he clearly feels that he has one more step to go. Jones is the human expression of that step.

Collins realises that he owes a lot to America and the Americans he fought when nobody in Ireland was interested. He wants to illustrate that the white boy with the funny accent in a Massachusetts gym has made it to the very top. He has now won over even the begrudgers in Ireland. However, he has one more peak to climb and that is to be able to say to the boxing people of the United States - and that means the peak to climb and that is to be able to say to the boxing people of the United States and that means the world - that he deserves their respect. Only Jones stands between him and that.

Meanwhile, those who still pine for the day when somebody comes along to put "Prince" Naseem Hamed on the broad of his back for more than 10 seconds can scarcely begrudge him the admiration which he deserved for his defeat of Tom "Boom Boom" Johnson.

Some crucial questions were asked of Naseem in the middle of his unification fight against the American IBF featherweight champion but there could be no doubt about the authenticity of his victory when the referee stopped the fight towards the end of the eighth round.

Johnson certainly lived up to his reputation as a tough customer and he had the capacity crowd at the London Arena gnawing their knuckles in the third round when Naseem seemed to have bitten off more than his considerable jaw could chew.

The WBO champion, however, weathered that storm and, although he was now a clearly worried man, he was quick enough mentally and physically to spot his opportunity. In the eighth round he whipped up a flurry of two-handed blows to Johnson's body before scoring with a superb right uppercut which left the American sprawling on the canvas.

Johnson managed to get to his feet but the referee decided that he was unable to continue and Naseem added the IBF belt to his collection. He is now a step further on the way to becoming the undisputed champion of the world.

In the other fight of Irish interest Michael Carruth's welterweight bout against Paul Dyer from Portsmouth was reduced from eight rounds to four with Carruth being adjudged to be the winner on a score of 40-38. Mark Winters' scheduled bout against Kos Kansantonis was cancelled.