Michael Collins

Michael Collins has been a senior writer with Boxing247.com (East Side Boxing) since 2012, bringing over a decade of experience to his coverage of the sport. Known for his steady reporting and clear analysis, he has written extensively on world title fights, contenders, and emerging prospects across the global boxing scene.

Michael’s work combines timely news with thoughtful features, giving fans both ringside detail and broader perspective on the stories shaping boxing today. With his consistency and depth, he remains a respected and trusted voice in the boxing community.

Bellew will need a miracle to beat Stevenson

10/23/201310/23/2013 Michael Collins

bellew45 British fighter Tony Bellew (20-1-1, 12 KO’s) is going to need a miracle knockout to beat WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson (22-1, 19 KO’s) on November 30th because he’s out of his league in every way you can imagine in this one. Bellew has wanted this fight for ages, and now that he’s got it he doesn’t look nearly ready.

While Bellew talks like he’s got the skills to beat Stevenson, the fact is Bellew doesn’t look like he’s in the same class as him. In the last two years of Bellew’s career, he hasn’t shown improvement from his defeat to former WBO light heavyweight champion Nathan Cleverly.

Deontay Wilder looking for KO No. 30 against Firtha this Saturday

10/22/201310/21/2013 Michael Collins

Undefeated #3 WBC heavyweight contender Deontay Wilder (29-0, 29 KO’s) will be looking for knockout #30 this Saturday night at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The 6’7” Deontay has started off his career with 29 straight knockouts since capturing a bronze medal in the 2008 Olympics for the United States.

The 6’7” Deontay was still pretty raw when he first turned pro in 2008, but he’s steadily improved to the point where he’s starting to look very polished. Deontay’s recent string of early knockouts over the likes of Siarhei Liakhovich, Audley Harrison and Kelvin Price shows the kind of improvement that Deontay has made in his game.

These same opponents would have likely extended Deontay a little if he had fought them in 2009 when he was still finding his way in the division. But Deontay has really made a ton of progress of late, and this Saturday boxing fans will get a chance to see if he’s ready to start taking on tougher challenges in the division.

Photos: Carl Frampton defeats Parodi

10/20/201310/19/2013 Michael Collins

EBU super bantamweight champion Carl Frampton (17-0, 12 KO’s) annihilated a badly over-matched, and underpowered Jeremy Parodi (35-2-1, 9 KO’s) by a 6th round knockout tonight at the Odyssey Arena, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. Frampton placed a perfect left hand to the body that put Parodi down on the canvas. The referee then counted Parodi out.

The bout was not much of a fight because Parodi was too busy getting nailed with power shots for the entire fight to do much besides throwing jabs. Parodi didn’t have the armament to make this an actual fight, so he ended up taking shots one after another for 6 rounds until hitting the deck from a left hand from Frampton.

Parodi was cut over the left eye in the 4th, and the blood was obviously a big problem for him. But even if he hadn’t been cut, he wasn’t going to be able to do much in this fight due to his lack of power. Parodi was over-matched in every sense of the word.

Virgil Hunter: Khan is in for a rude awakening if he fights Mayweather

09/30/201309/28/2013 Michael Collins

The latest talk is that former two division world champion Amir Khan may choose to bypass the risky fight against IBF welterweight champion Devon Alexander on December 7th in order to sit around until May to get a much bigger money fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Khan’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions wanted him to fight Alexander in order to give Khan a chance to pick up his IBF 147 lb. title and show boxing fans that he would be a worthy opponent for Mayweather.

Khan’s trainer Virgil Hunter doesn’t know what Khan is going to do, but he feels that he’s going to need to dedicate himself fully to the sport if he wants to beat a talented fighter like Mayweather.

Deontay Wilder looking for KO #30 against Nicolai Firtha on October 26th

09/27/2013 Michael Collins

Unbeaten heavyweight contender Deontay Wilder (29-0, 29 KO’s) will be looking to pick up his 30th consecutive knockout against the always tough Nicolai Firtha (21-10-1, 8 KO’s) on October 26th at the Boardwalk Hall, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA. The Deontay-Firtha fight will be on the undercard of Bernard Hopkins vs. Kara Furat and Peter Quillin vs. Gabriel Rosado card.

At this point, the Wilder vs. Firtha fight might not be televised. However, boxing fans will no doubt get to see clips of the fight if that happens. It’s likely not going to last more than 1 round at best, so boxing fans won’t miss a lot by not being able to see the entire Deontay vs.Firtha fight, if Showtime chooses not to televise it.

Haye: A scheduled date for me to beat up Fury is close

09/23/201309/22/2013 Michael Collins

David Haye (26-2, 24 KO’s) says he’s close to arranging a rescheduled date for him and unbeaten Tyson Fury (21-0. 15 KO’s) to fight. Haye was cut above his left eye in sparring this past week making it necessary for him to postpone his scheduled September 28th fight against the 6’9” Fury.

Haye’s injury could be good thing for Tyson Fury

09/21/201309/21/2013 Michael Collins

With the news today about former WBA heavyweight champion David Haye suffering a cut during sparring for his fight next week against Tyson Fury, it means that the fight will be postponed or possibly be even cancelled depending on whether Team Fury still wants to reschedule. However, it might be in Fury’s best interest to forget about facing Haye altogether, because it’s not as if Fury stood a real chance at winning the fight.

The odds were heavily in Haye’s favor to the point where it was hardly worth it for Fury to take the fight. Let’s be honest here; does anyone really think that the 6’9″, fragile-chinned Fury had any actual chance to beat Haye in this fight?

Fury doesn’t have the power, speed or the chin to have any chance at beating a big puncher like Haye. That’s why this injury might actually be the best thing for Fury because it let’s him move on and save face at the same time. I mean, Fury now has a ready-made excuse for why he shouldn’t have to face Haye now, and no one will blame him if he moves on and resumes fighting the likes of Martin Rogan, Kevin Johnson and Vinny Maddalone-types.

Deontay Wilder: Arreola’s afraid of me; he’s already running

09/08/201309/08/2013 Michael Collins

Unbeaten heavyweight Deontay Wilder (29-0, 29 KO’s) can already smell fear coming from Chris Arreola (36-3, 31 KO’s) now that he’s in a position where Golden Boy Promotions is trying to match him up against him. Arreola destroyed Seth Mitchell (26-2-1, 19 KO’s) in a 1st round TKO in Indio, California.

Deontay saw the fight he’s licking his chops at getting Arreola in the ring to face him, and he’s hoping Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions will be able to get Arreola to accept the fight.

Oscar sent out a twitter message to Showtime to see what they thought of the idea of Arreola and Deontay mixing it up. There’s no question they’ll go for the idea, especially after the God awful mismatch they televised tonight between Arreola and Mitchell.