On a night of pomp and nostalgia at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City, Steve Collins was formally inducted into the Atlantic City Boxing Hall of Fame last Saturday – an honor that further punctuated his legacy as arguably the most successful male Irish prizefighter of all time.
It was a triumphant return to Atlantic City, the one-time mecca of boxing, for the “Celtic Warrior,” a two-division world champion who fought there five times during his U.S. stint from 1986 to 1990.
Collins, who’s 61, was among 11 retired prizefighters – most former world champions – in the ACBHOF’s Class of 2025. Some were inducted posthumously.
Collins’s peers include former three-time world middleweight titlist Julian Jackson, ex-bantamweight and super bantamweight world champion Junior Jones, former super middleweight world title holder Charles Brewer, one-time IBF light welterweight holder Charles Murray, Philly middleweight title contender Curtis Parker, and US-based Polish middleweight Patrick Majewski.
Smokin’ Bert Cooper, Rocky Lockridge and “Irish” Teddy Mann were the posthumous inductees, while Young Gene Buffalo was inducted in the Pioneer category.
“I'm absolutely honored,” Collins told the Echo. “And when I found out that Joe Cortez, the famous referee, was gonna be inducted into the Hall of Fame the same night as me, I [looked] in an old photo album and found some photographs of him refereeing my U.S. title defenses back in 1989. So, I brought the photographs over with me and [gave them to him].”
Cortez was inducted in the Special Contributor category.
Collins was a prizefighter from 1986 to 1997 and retired having held both the WBO middleweight and super-middleweight titles simultaneously and without losing as champion. He hang up the gloves with a 36-3 [21 KO] record.
His first 19 fights in the paid ranks were States-side, including the five in Atlantic City.
Collins won the Irish middleweight title in 1988 and the USBA middleweight belt in 1989.
He twice failed, narrowly, in his bid for the WBA middleweight crown -- to Mike McCallum in 1990 and Reggie Johnson in 1992. The third and last defeat of his career was a controversial decision to Sumbu Kalambay in Italy for the European title.
Collins then went on to dominate the middleweight and super middleweight divisions. He captured the WBO belt with a fifth-round TKO victory over Chris Pyatt in 1994, then upset Chris Eubank for the super middleweight title in 1995.
He made seven successful title defenses before retiring.
MASTER PUGILISTS
Back in Atlantic City this Saturday, two Irish members of Donal Ward’s Bua Boxing Gym will compete in a USA Masters tournament for fighters aged 35 and over.
Ronan McLaughlin, an Astoria, Queens, resident out of Letterkenny, County Donegal, will compete in the 175-pound division. He’s been boxing for one year.
Dubliner Darragh O’Brien, also resident in Astoria, will give it a go in the 185-division. He’s been boxing for one year after six-years of Muay Thai training in Renzo Gracie.
The first Irish-owned gym in New York since the McLaughlin brothers’ Irish Ropes gym closed down in Far Rockaway 19 years ago, BUA will have seven other non-Irish competitors in Atlantic City.
