Stevie Collins feeling ten times better under new coach

Steve Collins Jr [12(4)-1(0)-1] continued his transformation in Belfast last weekend.

The Dublin light heavyweight fought on his second successive Ginley Promotions bill at The Devenish Complex as he looks to develop his technical and tactical skills under a new team.

‘The Wolfhound’ dominated Istvan Orsos over six rounds, and gave a considered view of his performance afterwards.

Collins described how “to be honest, I wanted to go in and box a lot but, after the first round, I felt I could take him out and spent the next five rounds trying to. The guy wouldn’t go down!”

“It was a solid performance, he barely layed a glove on me. He ain’t great but my tempo is what I was pleased with.”

His second fight under new coach Steven O’Rourke, Collins was keen to lavish praise on the Dublin-based Mancunian.

The former rugby player explained that “I’m with Steven only four months and I feel like I have improved tenfold over the four months.”

“He’s turning me into a fighter who can box, rather than someone who goes in and goes ‘I hit you, you hit me, and let’s see who goes down first.'”

“He’s educating me, I haven’t had the education previous to this so I’m very grateful to him for it. He has a great boxing brain.”

“He has a great calming effect on me and my discipline. I want to be a boxer because he’s in the ring with me, I feel like he’s on the track with me.”

“I love going to the gym, love boxing – I’ve always loved training but I can’t wait to get to the gym every day now.”

Collins seems somewhat caught between a desire for big fights and a need to build.

While he did bring a loud pocket of support up with him, the late starter is building and honing his trade on these Belfast small hall shows.

At the same time, fighters want to fight, and Collins is open to everything. With a willingness to learn on-the-job, he has a big clash lined up in 2018

He outlined how “I asked my managers at MTK to get me a good fight. They have a lot of guys on their books.”

“They had the Frampton bill there the other week and I would’ve loved to be on that. Obviously it makes more sense from a business aspect to put the Belfast lads on it. It completely makes sense, and they said they’d make it up to me, that they’d get me a bigger fight on a bigger show next year.”

“If they’ve got a step up for me, I’ll take it straight away – but if a six rounder comes, I’ll take it, if an eight rounder comes, I’ll take it. I never turn down the buildings, because it gives me the experience I so desperately need. I’m getting there.

Photo Credit: Ricardo Guglielminotti – The Fighting Irish (@ThefIrish)