FRANK WARREN, the promoter of Steve Collins and his world title fights, has accused the world IBF champion, Roy Jones, of being less than a champion unless he faces Collins. In an interview on BBC radio yesterday evening, Warren said that Jones could not claim to be a real champion unless he agreed to meet Collins.
"The fact of the matter is that Jones is boasting about being the best pound for pound fighter in the world at the moment and yet he refuses to take on Steve. I am tired of hearing all of this bluster from the States. Steve has taken on the best and beaten them. He "beat Chris Eubank twice, he beat Nigel Benn twice. Who has Jones beaten? Nobody of that calibre.
"There is only one way to prove himself and that is to take on Steve Collins. We will arrange it in Ireland, England or the US, or anywhere else for that matter. It is unfair to Steve and to the boxing public for Jones to keep running away from this.
"I have heard that Jones wants to fight Thomas Hearns. What would he want to fight a man who hasn't been inside a serious ring for ears while Steve Collins is out there willing to take him on, said a trenchant Warren.
Within minutes of his stoppage of the French champion Frederic Seillier at the London Arena on Saturday night, Collins was threatening to go to Roy Jones's door to challenge him on the spot. "The fact is that he is a coward. He keeps avoiding me. He boasts about how good he is. Well if he's all that good why doesn't he pick up the phone. He has my number. I'll fight him anywhere, anytime," Collins told the ringside attendance in London.
Much of the pre fight hype was centred on Prince Naseem Hamed who did not have matters all his own way in the unification bout with Tom Boom Boom Johnson. The flamboyant featherweight from Sheffield came back from some indifferent work earlier to drive Johnson back into a corner in the eighth round. After driving Johnson back again and again with a flurry of blows, Hamed finally scored spectacularly with a right uppercut which put him on the canvas.
