Tony Sibson vs John Collins

An unbeaten record built across 29 contests was destroyed in three minutes and 36 seconds at Atlantic City’s Playboy Hotel and Casino. John Collins, the tall Chicago middleweight whose right hand had stopped most of the men placed before him, entered the ring as the favourite on October 8, 1983. He left it after being floored three times by Tony Sibson, who was returning from the severe beating administered by undisputed champion Marvin Hagler eight months earlier.

Sibson had not travelled to provide the promising American with a distinguished name for his record. Compact, strong through the shoulders and giving away considerable height, the Leicester man immediately worked his way beneath Collins’s longer arms. He began at the body, forcing the American to bring down his elbows, then changed the level of his attack and used a stiff left jab to the head. Collins sought room for his straight right, the punch upon which much of his reputation rested, but Sibson crowded him and gave him little opportunity to set his feet.

The Englishman’s short punches proved more effective than Collins’s longer work. He drove in rights at close quarters and continued to make ground behind the jab. With 27 seconds remaining in the opening round, Sibson caught Collins near a neutral corner with two hard left hooks and a heavy jab which snapped back the American’s head. Collins attempted to move away, but his legs had already begun to betray him. Trapped again, this time near his own corner, he was put down by another left hook. The bell arrived before Sibson could press the advantage, allowing Collins’s seconds one minute in which to repair considerable damage.

They could not do it. Collins came out for the second round still unsteady and with none of his earlier composure. Sibson advanced without haste, knowing that the American had not recovered, and put him down again with a straight right. Collins rose and received the mandatory count, but he remained poorly balanced and offered no effective defence when Sibson resumed his attack. A succession of compact punches drove him across the ring before a final burst sent him to the floor for the third time. The referee intervened at 36 seconds of the round rather than permit an injured and defenceless man to continue.

The official result was a technical knockout in the second round of a scheduled ten-round middleweight contest. Sibson advanced his record to 48 wins, four defeats and one draw, while Collins suffered his first professional loss after 29 consecutive victories. No scorecards were required, and there was no dispute concerning the stoppage. The American had entered with the height, reach and recent form; Sibson had taken those advantages from him by fighting close, striking first and refusing him the space needed for his right hand.

For Sibson, the performance was an emphatic answer to those who wondered what remained after Hagler had stopped him in six rounds. He did not regain a world-title position by beating Collins, but he showed that the champion’s punishment had not removed his strength or resolution. Collins later recovered sufficiently to win the United States Boxing Association middleweight title, but on this afternoon he was hurried out of his stride, hurt before he could settle and overwhelmed before the contest had properly taken shape.

I was a big fan of the British middleweight scene in that period. I trained as an amateur alongside Errol Christie, met Mark Kaylor at Smithfield Market and later became friends with Alan Minter, but Tony Sibson was always a particular favourite of mine. I attended at least six of his biggest fights and watched his challenge against Marvin Hagler on a screen at the Odeon Leicester Square in the early hours. Hagler gave him a proper hiding, so taking John Collins in his first fight back looked a serious gamble.

Collins was unbeaten, highly regarded in America and could punch. He was also six feet one, considerably taller than Sibson, and there was talk of him becoming another challenger for Hagler. Yet Sibbo never allowed him to fight like the fancied prospect. He got beneath the long arms, attacked the body and then brought the left hook upstairs. That is intelligent pressure: shorten the taller man, make him lower his elbows and deny him the room to straighten his right hand.

Once Collins was hurt late in the opening round, Sibson did not waste a punch. He put him down before the bell, dropped him again immediately in the second and finished the job with short, compact blows. The stoppage after only 36 seconds of round two was entirely correct.

This was Sibson at his best: physically strong, technically sound and vicious when he sensed weakness. Collins was not exposed as a fraud; he later became a credible American champion. Sibson simply took a dangerous, unbeaten man apart. It remains one of the finest wins of his career.