Collins hoping to step it up after win over ‘embarrassingly bad’ Latvian

Stevie Collins Jnr put his nine-month injury lay-off behind him with a bizarre win in the early hours of Sunday morning in London, then set his sights on a pivotal 2015.

Collins tore his rotator cuff back in February and has been tirelessly working his way back to full fitness ever since. But the nature of the injury restricted his movement so much that he has only been able to train for the past two months.

But that did not stop him from registering the fourth victory of his fledgling career with a lopsided win over late stand-in Mareks Kovalevskis, of Latvia, who was floored twice during their four-round contest.

However, the 24-year-old Dubliner was made to wait for his chance to impress after Frank Warren’s stacked Bad Blood card dragged on deep into Sunday morning.

But with almost all of the undercard fights going the distance, he actually fought after the Tyson Fury v Dereck Chisora main event — and it was gone 2am before he got in the ring. He said: “I was gloved up from six o’clock. I got messed over quite a bit but finally got in the ring at gone 2.

“It was a bad night with an embarrassingly bad last-minute opponent but it’s another win for the gym at least.”

Now Collins, who had no amateur experience to speak of, is hoping to make up for lost time in 2015 after a difficult past nine months.

He added: “I might be out again before Christmas but then next year I need to be busy so I’m hoping to fight between eight and 11 times.

“If I can get one a month even better. I need to keep learning.

“If I look after myself, live a clean life and don’t take too much punishment, I can fight until I’m 40. That means I’ve still got 17 years to develop into a great fighter.”

As ever, Collins senior was in his son’s corner for the fight, so what advice did the former two-weight world champion have for the young cruiserweight?

“Dad reassures me I’ll get the big fights and everything I want in good time, when I’m ready,” he said.

Meanwhile, Andy Lee and Billy Joe Saunders, both ex Irish and British Olympians, will clash in a WBO World middleweight showdown – if Lee does the business in Las Vegas on December 13.

Saunders, unbeaten in 21 outings, edged Chris Eubank Junior on a split decision in Saturday’s WBO eliminator in London while Lee meets Russia’s Matt Korobov for the vacant WBO title and Saunders is now the mandatory challenger.

It was a close call for Saunders. He won the earlier rounds, but Eubank finished strong and a draw might have been a fairer result.

Saunders and Eubank met on the Tyson Fury versus Dereck Chisora undercard at the ExCel Arena.

Fury switched, either through boredom or tactics, from orthodox to southpaw early on and dominated before Chisora was retired by his corner in the 10th round.

Unbeaten Fury, who boxed for Ireland and England as an amateur, reckons he has the armoury to face heavyweight kingpin Wladimir “Dr Steeelhamer” Klitschko.

“Klitschko, I’m coming. No surrender. I’m the Gypsy Warrior!” said the unbeaten giant 6ft 9in puncher after improving to 23 straight wins on Saturday.

Birmingham-born ex-Irish pro champion Frankie Gavin outpointed Bradley Skeete on a unanimous decision to secure the vacant British welter title.

Gavin, whose parents are Irish, became the first England boxer to win an AIBA World Elite amateur title in Chicago in 2007 after beating Italy’s Domenico Valentino in the 60kg final.