Interview Dated April 2007 Heavyweight Steve Collins Steve Collins is a bruising young fighter who has come to the Bayou City from Garrett, Indiana to train and make a name for himself in the sweet science. Fighting out of the Main Gym in downtown Houston, the 6'3", 250-lb. Collins has piled up a record of 13-1 with 11 knockouts. HBS - What brings you down to Houston? SC - Training. There's nothing really back home so I've come down here to train with Bobby Benton and my manager's down here, Bruce Christiansen so... HBS - How long have you been down here for? SC - Right now I've been down here for six months. But I was down here three years ago for a little bit when I was 18 and kind of went back home for a little bit to figure out what I want to do and this is what I want to do so I'm back. I'm not leaving this time. HBS - What happened in those three years, tell us about your thought process that led you to decide to make a career out of boxing? SC - Well I've always wanted to be in sports, athletics, and I worked in a factory for two years and that's definitely not what I want to do for a living. To work out and get paid for it is definitely an ideal job. HBS - What kind of factory was it? SC - A distribution center with huge boxes. HBS - Tell us about your amateur background, what other sports you did. SC - I've had zero amateur fights and I've played basketball, baseball, football. I've had full rides in all of them to division one colleges so I just turned them down to box. HBS - Tell us about your last fight. SC - It was against Vernon Woodward in New Mexico in January and I knocked him down twice. In the first and I think once in the second round. But it ended up going the distance, four rounds, and I ended up coming out with an unanimous decision. HBS - Tell us about what you would consider to be your most difficult so far. (Collins suffered a third round TKO against Scott "Rhino" Rossum at the D & I Colonial Ballroom in Houston in October of 2005). SC - His name was Shawn Robinson. He was 15-6 when I fought him and I was 4-0 so it was a difficult fight but I ended up on top. It was in my hometown so it felt good. HBS - So it was pretty intimidating to go in there against a guy like that. Tell us about what he did and what you did. SC - Well, moving around a lot, tried to jab him. He was really a slugger. I mean he was shaped like a "V", that kind of body and it just turned out to my benefit I guess. I just kept the jab on him and ended up winning the decision. HBS - How did you first get into boxing? SC - Just one day I was messing around in the garage and a guy that used to promote boxing moved to my hometown working on the railroad, and he saw me in the garage. He told me I had potential just from the power I had so two weeks later after I graduated high school I moved down here. He hooked me up with a manager and then hooked me up with a trainer and I went from there. HBS - So what are you working on with Bobby Benton? SC - I'm working on a little of everything. I'm still green. I've still got all the basics and fundamentals. Just trying to get my hands up and get my conditioning up. HBS - You looked pretty strong sparring against T-Diddy (Maurenzo Smith). SC - It was the first time I sparred him. I just had to feel him out a little bit, try to move towards him. He moves a little bit more than Dominick (Guinn) did so it was a little different. HBS - So what do you have coming up? SC - I do have a fight May 5th. I think they're looking at Tex Cobb's son (Josh). It's going to be back in my hometown. I haven't been back in a long time so I'm excited about it.