STEVE COLLINS will defend his WBO super middleweight title against the Frenchman, Frederic Seillier, at the London Arena on February 8th. The match was confirmed yesterday by the promoter, Frank Warren. It will be Collins' sixth defence of the title.
The Collins Sellier fight will be one of four world title fights on a bill which will also feature the featherweight unification bout between the WBO champion "Prince" Naseem Hamed and the IBF title holder Tom "Boom Boom" Johnson.
The other world title bouts are at light flyweight, where Mickey Cantwell from London meets "Baby Jake" Matlala from South Africa, and Robin Reid, who is now based in Milan, will defend his WBC super middleweight title against an opponent yet to be named. A unification bout between Collins and Reid, presuming that bout is won in February, would now appear to be looming.
Collins, who has disposed of the two best British boxers in modern times, Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn (each on two occasions) now takes on the highly rated Seillier, who is rated number one behind Collins in the WBO lists.
In May of last year, Seillier challenged the American Frank Liles for the WBA title, but he was stopped in the sixth round. It was only his sixth defeat in 43 fights.
The bill will be shown live on the Sky Sports' network in Britain and Ireland and also on ART television broadcasting to the Middle East. where Naseem is very popular.
Collins said last night of Seillier: "This French guy is a very tough customer and I have no illusion about his challenge. Although the details have not been worked out, it also gives me a chance to win a European title since Seillier is the European super middleweight champion at the moment."
Collins also promised that when his days as a professional boxer are over, he will devote his time and energy and his experience to the promotion of boxing in Ireland. He made the promise after being honoured by the Irish Boxing Writers' Association as the Professional Boxer of the Year at a ceremony at the National Stadium in Dublin last night.
Other recipients of awards were Damaen Kelly from Belfast who was given the Amateur Boxer of the Year Award and Maxie McCullough, who was honoured as the recipient of the Hall of Fame Award.
Also honoured was Freddie Roach from the United States, who is Collins's trainer and coach at the moment.
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