BOXING/Steve Collins's retirement

By Sean KilfeatherSTEVE COLLINS, Ireland'smost successful professionalboxer , yesterday announcedhi s retirement from the ring.The announcement, at a box-ing awards ceremony in Lon-don , came only 24 hoursafter Collins's world supermiddleweight title defence,scheduled for next Saturdayweek, was cancelled becauseof a leg injury.

Collins was tearful on announc-ing his decision, but sourceswithin boxing are already predict-ing that when he sheds his presentdisappointments the very strongcall of the gym and physical com-bat might cause a change of mind.

The self-styled 'Celtic Warrior',who had been training in theUnited States for his scheduleddefence against Joe Calzaghe fromWales in Sheffield on October] lth , had developed an abscess onhis right leg and had been advisedby his doctor to withdraw fromthe bout.

That medical advice had beenconveyed offici ally to the WorldBoxing Organisation (WBO) andto the fight promoter, Frank War-ren, who responded by calling apress conference in London toannounce that Collins had "beenstripped" of the title and thatCalzaghe and Chris Eubank wouldbe matched for the "vacant title"with the winner becoming the newWBO champion.

This was later contradicted bythe WBO, with an announcementthat Collins would retain the titleand would defend it against thewinner of the "interim title" fightbetween Calzaghe and Eubank.

Collins's surprise announce-ment would appear to give thatfight official world title status.

Thus has ended (for the mo-ment at least) a career which wasnever short of either success orcontroversy. As an amateur Col-lins had never made a great im-pact but won the Irish amateurmiddleweight title in 1986. Thefollowing year he surprised manywhen, having gone to>the UnitedStates with an amateur interna-tional side, he failed to join theparty when the time came to comehome. He stayed on in the UnitedSlates with a view to pursuing aprofessional boxing career.

Collins joined the famousPetronelli brothers' gym in Brock-

ton, near Boston, and put a stringof undistinguished victories be-hind him before winning the Irishmiddleweight title by beatingSammy Storey on St Patrick's dayin Boston in 1988.

He won the US middleweighttitle in 1989 but his first big breakcame when he fought MikeMcCallum, then regarded as thebest "pound for pound" boxer inthe world, for the world middle-weight title. Collins went the fulldistance with McCallum, but suf-fered his first professional defeat.

A respectful McCallum said hehad no intention of taking on Col-lins on again. "I am sure that oneday he will be champion but itwon't be at my expense."

Collins made two other unsuc-cessful attempts to win a majormiddleweight title. He was beatenby Reggie Johnson in New Jerseyin a WBA world title bout and lostto Sumbu Kalambay in Italy in aEuropean title attempt.

These bouts had earned him areputation for being tough anddurable and difficult to beat. Suc-cess finally came his way when hebeat Chris Pyatt for the vacantWBO middleweight title on astoppage in May of 1994.

Perhaps the most remarkablefight of his career was in theGreen Glens Arena in Millstreetin March 1995 when he chal-lenged the then WBO super mid-dleweight champion , ChrisEubank.

The venue had been describedon British television as an old cowshed but that was not the onlycontroversy in the run-up to thefight. A "head-to-head" press con-ference was staged in Dublin andCollins attempted to stealEubank's thunder. Eubank has al-ways promoted himself as being abit of a dandy, sporting high fash-ion suits, jodhpurs , a silver-topped cane and a monocle.

Collins, not to be outdone,turned up in a Rolls Royce,dressed in Donegal tweeds. Hewas escorting, or being escortedby, an Irish wolfhound.

Collins then addressed the con-ference in Irish and, switching toEnglish, accused Eubank of beinga fraud and of betraying his Afro-Caribbean roots. Eubank was furi-ous, and after heated exchanges hestormed out. As he left JurysHotel the Lord Mayor of Dublin, •John Gormley, offered to takehim on a tour of the city. Eubankreplied: "Fuck the city. Fuck thecity," and kept moving in the gen-eral direction of the airport.

Better, or worse, was to follow.Collins announced on the eve ofthe fight in Millstreet that he hademployed" a hypnotist, TonyQuinn, to help him to prepare. Hesaid he would be under hypnosisduring the fight and that he wouldfeel no pain and would not bleed.

Eubank fell for what was, in ret-rospect, a mischievous ruse andthreatened to pull out. He waspersuaded to go on with the fight ,however, but he had lost a psy-chological battle and although heput Collins on the floor midwaythrough the fight , he lost the titleon a points decision.

A rematch was soon puttogether, at Pairc Uf Chaoimh.Collins won on a split decision.

The Irishman then defended thetitle in Dublin against CorneliusCarr. He went back to Millstreetand was successful against NevilleBrown, and successfully defendedhis title against Nigel Benn twice.He beat the Frenchman, FredericSellier in February of this year.

His last fight was against CraigCummings in July when the boutwas stopped in round three.

STEVE Collins was relaxedand content when he returnedto Dublin last night. Therewas a hint that there might beone final fling for the retiredboxer — but only against theAmerican Roy Jones . "That isnot on. I spoke to all his peopleand he was not inter ested infighting me. I would not be in-terested in fightin g anybodyelse so this is truly the end," hesaid.

"I want everybod y to knowthat I am deeply grateful for thecareer I have had in boxing andI intend to put a lot back intothe sport because I believe thatthere are dozens and dozens ofyoung lads all over Ireland whocould achieve what I haveachieved and I intend to havethem do that ," he said. He willmeet the press in Dublin today.

Celti c Warr ior

Collins inDublin

Irish offi cial incursBallesteros's wrath

SEVE BALLESTEROS yesterdaysuggested that an Irish PGA rulesofficial "is not up to the job" and"should be retired", after he hadbeen warned for slow play in theGerman Masters in Berlin.

Following the breach of Tourregulations, Ballesteros is nowunder threat of a one-stoke penal-ty and a fine of £500."It's not fair and I am very

angry and upset," said the Spanishplayer. "Ken Schofield mustreview the people who are outthere acting as referees. TonyGray should be doing somethingelse. He is not up to the job. Thisguy should be retired.

"I told him that conditions werevery difficult, that I had to twicestep away from my putt at the16th because of disturbances, andthat we were not holding anybodyup. I am fed up, it's plain stupid-ity, and maybe I should now playsomewhere else."

Replying to the criticisms, Graysaid: "We now time players with-out any prior warning if they arebehind schedule and out of posi-tion. I made every allowance forSeve at the 16th because of thestrong wind, the crowd and theinterruptions. But he was still wayover the limit for that putt ."

Gray, who has more than 20years' experience on the PGAEuropean Tour, and latterly theSeniors' circuit acted after thegroup , which containedBallesteros, American Tom Leh-man and German Sven Struver,had fallen 30 minutes behindschedule and over one-and-a-halfholes behind the group ahead.

He put the players "on thewatch" at the 14th and recordedthe breach of timing regulationson the 16th green by Ballesteros,who eventually holed an awkwardfive-foot putt for his par four. Butaccording to Gray he had taken 55seconds instead of the 40 permit-

GOLF German Masters

ted, and that required Ballesterosto be warned that if a furtherbreach occurred before he finishedthe round, the twin penaltieswould automatically be enforced.

The Irish referee delivered hiswarning after Ballesteros hadplayed from the 17th tee, and theSpaniard responded with hisstinging rebuke after dumping hissecond shot into the lake at the18th to take a double bogey six tofinish with a 74.

Tournament director DavidProbyn pointed out that Gray hadonly been following newdirectives, which had been in-sisted on by the players them-selves, at their last committeemeeting a fortnight ago.

"Each player had been handed a"pace of play" notice on the firsttee which reminded him of thetougher regulations that werebrought in at the British Masterstwo weeks ago " he said. "We arenow under direction from theplayers themselves to strictly en-force them, and that is what weare doing this week."

Ballesteros didn't receive anysympathy from Bernhard Langerwho was playing in the match be-hind. The German, who shot 68 toshare the lead with England'sDavid Howell and Martin Gates,said: "Seve's group was very slowand we were held up on every shotalmost the whole way round."

Langer, who is aiming to over-haul Colin Montgomerie at thehead of the Volvo Ranking, andwin his 10th European event onGerman soil, suffered little reac-tion from his exploits atValderrama.

But it was a different story forthe rest of his Ryder Cup team-mates and any thoughts thatDarren Clarke entertained of a lapof honour were swiftly swept awayby the autumn gale, sweepingacross the Motzener See course.

Clarke began his defence of theLinde German Masters title with a73, but it was a struggle through-out, especially after the Ulstermanlost the benefit of two early bird-ies. "All I want to do is go to bedand sleep. I don't want to go any-where near the practice ground,"said Clarke afterwards, thankfulhe had not incurred the sort oftrouble that Lee Westwood foundin crashing to a 79.

Jose Maria Olazabal, mean-while, shot 69, aud Montgomerieand Thomas Bjorn both had 71,while Per-Ulrik Johanssonmatched par. However AmericanCup men Tom Lehman and PhilMickelson both had 73, and lastyear's US Open Champion SteveJones struggled to a 74 in the blus-tery wind and showers.

Paul McGinley was the best ofthe other Irish contenders, havingfour birdies in his 71, one betterthan Padraig Harrington, EamonnDarcy and Philip Walton.

Harrington, who had two bird-ies in his first six holes from the10th, put his seven-iron approachinto the water at the 18th to losethe benefit. Then he slipped at thefinish of the inward nine, aftergetting an eagle three at the down-wind fifth from a drive and eight-iron to a foot. He was short withhis approach to the eighth, andput his second shot into an electricbuggy behind the green at theninth.

Ronan Rafferty and RaymondBurns both shot 75, while DesSmyth, who had two sixes in aninward 40, took 77.

Star and Delta set to prosper in Neptune's absenceNEPTUNE , the BudweiserSuperleague champions, will notbegin the defence of their titleuntil the second programme ofmatches tomorrow week. TheIBA agreed to defer their fixture

with Tralee because of the Kerryclub's late decision to remain inthe National League after an ear-lier decision to withdraw from thecampaign.

Thinking that their opening fi x-ture had been cancelled , Neptuneallowed their home venue to bebooked for another activitytomorrow night so they could notbe deemed to be at fault for theunavailability of the venue. Thematch has been rescheduled forJanuary 9th , 1998.

Two of the teams favou red toprosper in Neptune's absence thisweekend are Star of the Sea andDelta Notre Dame who have diffi-

BASKETBALLGreg Allen

cult ope ning away fixtures tomor-row evening.

League runners-up Star, win-ners of the post-season Top Fourlast March , are away to Ballina.Tha Mayo club spent last seasonin the lower division and will havea point to prove on their homecourt in Killala.

Ballina look like being withoutDeora Marsh (back injury) andmay have to call on Liam McHale

just a week after his All-Irelandfootball final disappointment withMayo.

Ballina have signed two Ameri-cans, Chris Doyal and JasonBloome , and I tal i an IgorBongeovanne, who is 6ft 8ins.

Star have their fine acquisitionfrom last season, John Leahy,back from the USA, while theyalso have a new American, ChuckGuitar . However, Karl Donnellyhas returned to Dublin where hewill link up with his old cjub StVincent's.

The cup holders, Delta , haveplayer coach Anthony Jenkinsback again along with naturalised

Irishman, Lcnnie McMillan , andnew American signing, PaulHodges from South Carolina. Inaddition, they have signed formerIrish international Damien Sealy,who played with Killester inrecent seasons, and SpaniardEnrique Anare, who is a student atDCU.

Delta make the journey southto last season's cup semi-finalists,St Paul's, Killarney, who havebrought in two rookie Americans,Derek Thomkins, a 6ft 2in guard/forward from Virginia , and 6ft8ins forward/centre , StevePolonski from Michigan.

Killester, who host the Dublin

derby with UCD-Manan tomor-row in Clontarf, have two newsignings in the well-travelled MikeTrimmer and Canadian AndyWilmot. Trimmer, who stands at6ft 8ins, has played in Switzer-land , Sweden and Portugal , whileWilmot arrives after a spell inSouth Africa .

Marian will be considerably bol-stered by the acquisition of Irishsquad member Neville Charlesand they have retained their reli-able American , Kevin Ellery.They have also signed 6ft 11 inAmerica n, Mike Amos, whoplayed in Australia last year andthey have a new American coach

in Matt Boyle from California.St Vincent's open their cam-

paign on Sunday at home to newlypromoted Dungannon. The Dub-lin club have signed one CategoryTwo foreign player as yet, LamontDuckett, from Alabama A and MUniversity. Duckett played inSwitzerland last season, whileIrish passport holder, DaveConlon, a 6ft 6ins forward, arrivesfrom New York.

Dungannon , who have strength-ened their Irish bench with thesigni ng of Gary Connolly fromStar of the Sea and Paul Rigbyfrom Annadale, have two new for-

eign signings , Alcinder Bailer andTodd McNeil.

In the new ESB-sponsoredwomen's Superleague, the th ree-in-a-row champions , Wildcats,begin their defence at home torecently promoted Killester inWaterford on Sunday, while Me-teors are at home to Limerick.

Tolka Rovers, who open theirseason with an away match inCastleisland, have lost RachelKelly, who was their best playerlast season Kelly has gone to Eng-land while another of their play-ers, Sharon Kelly, will miss thefirst half of the season.

# sHeineke n CupLEINSTERv MILAN

Donny brookSaturda y, 4th October

Kick-off 3 pm

Hassett jumpsto second spot

IRELAND'S Valerie Hassettonce again produced somemagic on the final day of theBritish senior women's openamateur championship to leap-frog over three players atFrilford Heath in Oxfordshireand take runners-up spot.

A year ago at Pyle andKenfig in south Wales,Hassett , who plays out of theEnnis club, came from the pro-verbial mile off the pace toclinch the crown by a stroke ina dramatic finale. Yesterday,she reduced the deficit by fourstrokes but could not get nearthe winner , Toni Wiesner , aleft-hander from Texas.

However , Hassett overtookCanadian Diane Williams ,Scotland' s Pamela Williamsonand Welsh champion ChristineThomas to take second spot.

The other Irish players fadedyesterday. Sally Casey, whohails from Cork but now livesin America , finished with an 86

for 256 and a share of 28thplace and Milltown 's GeraldineCostello took 89 for 259.

231 — T Wiesner (USA) 74, 77 80; 236— V Hassett (Ennis) 79 81 76; 237 — DWilliams (Canada) 77 81 79; 241 — EMcCombe (Hockley) 80 83 78, R Farrow (StNeofs) 77 84 80.

• Mike Brisky fired a six-under-par 66 for a one-strokelead over Ryder Cup disap-pointment Davis Love and fiveothers after yesterday 's firstround of the Buick Challenge atPine Mountain , Georgia.

Love, who lost all four of hismatches at last week's RyderCup and is the only member ofthe losing US team team com-peting this week, finished witha birdie for a 67, tying him withGabriel Hjerstedt of Swedenand four others.

Hjerstedt , who won lastweek's B.C. Open , was joinedby David Ogrin , GaryHallberg, Brandel Cham bleeand Hal Sutton.

Make or breaktime for racers

THIS WEEKEND could well bemake or break time for the 10crews compet ing in leg one of theWhitbread Round the WorldRace. Tactics overnight and todaywill decide the best approach tothe notorious doldrums regionand, after two weeks at sea sincethe start at Southampton, the raceon this 7,350-mile leg could easilyrestart.

The race has, so far, been moreabout' luck than boatspeed andeven the more favoured skippershave been caught out by the un-typically light and flukey condi-tions on their route south. Whatshould be the halfway point in theleg this weekend is barely oi\ethird the distance as the race lagsbehind predictions by more thantwo days.

The light and sunny weatherhasn't made for easy sailing either.Crews respond to the slightestwind shift and several boatsreported 360 degree changes ear-lier this week. Typically, sail bagsare shifted about the boat in aneffort to distribute weight withoutusing the water-ballast pumpingsystem that only adds to the load,that would further hamperprogress.

Of critical importance is theestimate of the duration for thestage to Cape Town. This has de-termined the amount of food sup-plies and diesel each boat iscarrying.

Many skippers ordered a last-minute reduction of non-essen-tials in Southampton in an effortto cut weight when the forecastindicated light weather, at leastfor the early part of the course.

Already the fleet has intro-duced food rationing and cutbacksin power consuming activitiessuch as water-making and com-munications. The leading boats onthe approaches to South Africaare likely to be determined by the

SAILINGDavid Branigan

ability to pump water for the bal-last systems as well as power thenavigation systems, thus ensuringa constant stream of weather data.Crew welfare will also be underpressure and minimal on-boardtelevision footage will be relayedby satellite.

But the most immediate con-cern is the Inter-Tropical Conver-gence Zone (ITCZ) or doldrums.As the fleet is spread between theCanaries and Cape Verde Islands,all navigators are consideringwhat angle to approach the ITCZwhile still keeping close to thesouthwards Rhumb line. As thetrade winds finally start to kick inafter a prolonged absence, a vari-ety of choices create a tacticaldilemma.

Current thinking by the leaderssuggests a westward approach asthe satellite imagery is indicatinga weakness in the zone closer tothe coast of Brazil and the fi rstwaypoint of the Fernando de No-ronha island. Should this proveaccurate and stable, minimum de-lay could be expected from thisroute.

This choice has already seenseveral boats gybe across for asouth-westerly course and theleaders passed the Cape Verdesyesterday afternoon.

Originally, Americas Cup vet-eran Paul Cayard on EF Languagehoped to time his arrival at theislands for mid-afternoon but hassince opted to shadow Grant pal-ton's Merit Cup in second behindNorwejian Knut Frostad on Inno-vation Kvaerner. His theory wasthat the trade winds will funnelthrough the islands and , based onhis experience in Hawaii, could

give a five hour advantage andstill give a reasonable angle for thedoldrums.

Further back the field , wherethe breeze has finally filled in toabout 20 knots, American entryChessie Racing still leads Britain'sSilk Cut by just less than 30 miles."Life, aboard Silk Cut is continu-ing as normal with no gear failureor injury. It is nice to be movingagain," was the comment fromLawrie Smith's crew where Ire-land's Gordon Maguire is second-in-command.

But, if 143 miles to the leadersin fifth place is disappointing forSmith, spare a thought for racefavourite Chris Dickson who isanother 90 miles astern. "Life inthe cheap seats is not a lot of fun,"reported the New Zealander."Having gained on the leaders, itwas tough yesterday to sit again ina glass ocean drifting with nowind, while the boats 50 milesahead sailed away and the boats50 miles behind caught up."• Last Monday s results section incor-

rectly reported the outcome of the run-ner-up position at the ISA NationalDinghy Match Racing Championship.Michael O'Connor and Dermot Boylanwere beaten 3-2 in the final by Tom Fitz-patrick and David McHugh; Sean Craigand Heather King took third after thesail-offs against Paddy Oliver andMelanie Morris.

GOLF — German Masters, Berlin. ChallengeMatch, Enniscrone, 8.0.

GREYHOUND RACING — Harold's Cross, 8.0.RACING — Newmarket, 2.05; Ungfield, 1.55;

Hexham, 2.15.RUGBY — European Cup (Pool B) — Ulster v

Wasps, Ravenhill. 7.30.SOCCER — National League, Premier Division

— Drogheda United v Sligo Rovers, UnitedPark, 7.45; Shelbourne v Cork City. TolkaPark, 7.45; First Division — Athlone Town vGalway United, St Mel's Park. 7.45; BrayWanderers v Monaghan United, CarlisleGround, 7.45; Waterford United v HomeFarm/Everton, Waterford RSC, 7.45.

(Irish in bold , British unless stated)68 — D Howell, B Langer (Ger), M

Gates.69 — G Orr, J M Olazabal (Spa).70 — A Binaghi (Ita), P Haugsmd (Nor).71 — J Spence, S Torrance, P Sjoland

(Swe), T Bjorn (Den), C Montgomerie,A Coltart, P McGinley.

72 — R Muntz (Hoi), M Anglert (Swe), EDarcy, P Harrington , P Walton , P-UJohansson (Swe), F Tarnaud (Fra), SRichardson.

73 — S Cage, D Carter, D Clarke , TGogele (Ger), Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn), PMickelson (USA), T Lehman (USA), MMackenzie.

74 — D Cooper, S Luna (Spa), R Goosen(Rsa), P Curry, S Ballesteros (Spa), SJones (USA), P Baker, R Russell, RClaydon, I Feliu (Spa).

75 — R Boxall , G Brand jnr , ASherborne, A Cejka (Ger), R Rafferty,J Sandelin (Swe}, W Riley (Aus), RBums , M Mouland, C Rocca (Ita), RDrummond, A Hunter, M Gronberq

(Swe), T Johnstone (Zim), P Linhart(Spa), P Broadhurst, P Price.

76 — j Payne, A Oldcorn, P Lawrie, JLomas, I Garrido (Spa), M Davis, RWillison, B Lane, W Westner (Rsa), MJonzon (Swe).

77 — M Mattheis (Ger), H Bjornstadt(Nor), P Mitchell, R Karlsson (Swe), MA Jimenez (Spa), A Forsbrand (Swe),G Evans, D Smyth , J Rivero (Spa), HClark, C Suneson (Spa), D Chopra(Swe), R Chapman.

78 — P Hedblom (Swe), M Roe, J-LGuepy (Fra), J Hawkes (Rsa), P Eales,M Florioli (Ita), R McFarlane.

79 — F Roca (Spa), D Hospital (Spa), MTunnicliff , L Westwood.

80 — I Pyman, J Van de Velde (Fra).81 — P Platz (Ger), C Arenz (Ger), U

Eckhardt (Ger).82 — M Farry (Fra), J Robson, M

Harwood (Aus).83 — L Jahn (Ger).84 — K Chirband (Ger).

FIRST-ROUND SCORES

1964: Born Dublin, July 21st.1983: Becomes Irish junior light-

heavyweight champion.1984: Irish ABA finalist.1985: Irish ABA finalist.1986: Irish ABA middleweight

champion. On October 24th, makesprofessional debut against JulioMercado, knocking him out in thethird round.

1987: On October 10th, has firstfight of the year, knocking outJimmy Holmes in the first round.Then beats three more opponents,on points, making it four victorieswithin two months.

1988: Fights Sam Storey in Bos-ton for the Irish middleweight title.Wins on points after 10 rounds.

1989: On May 9th, meets KevinWatts for the USBA middleweighttitle in Atlantic City. Wins title onpoints after 12 rounds. In July, suc-cessfully defends title, again onpoints, against Tony Thornton.

1990: On February 3rd, loses toMike McCallum — his first profes-sional defeat — when challengingfor WBA middleweight title.

1991: Wins three fights, all inthird round.

1992: On April 22nd, loses on pointsto Reggie Johnson in the United Stateswhen fighting for vacant WBA middle-weight title. On October 22nd, losesagain against Sumbu Kalambay, chal-lenging for European middleweight title.

1993: Returns to winning ways andafter two victories, claims vacant Penta-Continental middleweight title, beatingGerhard Botes.

1994: On May 11th, wins WBO middle-weight title after beating Chris Pyatt inSheffield. Referee stops fight in fifthround.

1995: On March 18th, gains historicpoints victory over Chris Eubank, inflict-ing the Englishman's first defeat, andclaims WBO super-middleweight title.On September 9th in Cork, the fightersmeet in a rematch and Collins repeatshis superb performance to retain the titleon points. Defends title again in Novem-ber when beating Cornelius Carr in Dub-lin on points.

1996: On March 9th, retains title whenbeating Neville Brown at Millstreet. Ref-eree stops fight in 11th round. On July6th, in front of a 20,000 crowd in Man-chester, Collins beats Nigel Benn as theEnglishman retires injured at end oifourth round. On November 9th, the twefighters meet again in Manchester andCollins triumphs again when Benn's cor-ner throw in towel at the start of theseventh round.

1997: On February 8th, Collins meetsEuropean super-middleweight championFrederic Seillier at London Arena andwins in the fifth round after the French-man was badly cut. On July 5th, beatsAmerican fireman Craig Cummings inGlasgow with a third-round stoppageafter being knocked down in first round.Pulls out of arranged WBO super-middle-weight title defence against JoeCalzaghe in Sheffield after returning fromholiday, claiming he has been given in-sufficient time to prepare. Subsequentlyagrees to take the fight. On October 1st,it is announced Chris Eubank and JoeCalzaghe will meet with the interim titleat stake, the winner to meet Collins. Thefollowing day, Collins announces hisretirement.

WHETHER suffering from shock or disbelief,it appeared last night that two of Steve Col-lins's potential opponents ,' Chris ' Eubank andJoe Calzaghe , were beginning to regret thepressure they had put upon him earlier. Bothsuggested that his retirement was likely to bereversed before long.

Eubank said that he regarded the Collinsannouncement as "whimsical" . It couldscarcely have been more whimsical thatEubank' s own assessment of the situation."Look at the record. He has been beaten bythree opponents — Mike McCallum , ReggieJohnson and Sumbu Kalambay. I have beenbeaten only by one."

He neglected to mention that that one per-son was Collins and that it had happenedtwice.

Yet Eubank wants another chance. "Idon 't really think he has retired. When hecomes back I'll be waiting for him," saidEubank , who has beaten only two obscureMiddle Eastern fighters since "retiring " twoyears ago

Calzaghe , who said earlier in the week thatCollins was "slow and clumsy" and that hewas afraid to take the fight because he knewhe would be beaten , dismissed the reportedretirement. "I can tell you for sure , he'll beback ," he said.

Collins himself was tearful as he an-nounced his retirement at a boxing awardsceremony in London. "I have been thinkingabout it for a couple of months. I wanted thatfight with Roy Jones but it wasn't to be. Sev-eral things went wrong.

"Now I am looking forward to getting backhome to Dublin. I have missed my wife andkids and I am looking forwar d to spending alot of time with them to make up for the past. Iam deeply grateful to the many people at homeand abroad who gave me such supportthroughout my career. I certainly hope to beable to put something back into the sportwhich I love," he said.

The secretary of the British Boxing Boardof Control , John Morris , was generous in hispraise. "Steve liked to be known as the CelticWarrior and to be honest he was the type ofwarrior I like to> watch in the ring. He was avery honest fighter ."

Morris concluded: "He was a worthychampion and he knows best when the timehas come. I wish him well."

NO MORE . . . Sjeve Collins wipes away a tear as he announces his retirement from the sport in London yesterday .

Eubank expects a comeback

SPORT