GLASGOW, Scotland – Nathaniel Collins knows that in order to get to where he hopes to go in his career, he has to go through someone he respects and knows well in Lee McGregor.
The two Scots will meet at the OVO Hydro on Saturday in a fight that could see the winner become Scotland’s flag-bearing fighter when Josh Taylor – the bill topper – calls it a day.
Collins is 16-0 (7 KOs) and the Bearsden southpaw and his opponent rate one another highly.
There were some terse exchanges between fighters at yesterday’s press conference, but Collins told BoxingScene that he and McGregor have no ill will.
“A couple of them [other fighters in the press conference] were funny and fiery, but yeah, ours was pretty serious and respectful. But, mainly, we know each other well and we’ve grew up together through the amateurs and shared trips together with Scotland and sparred rounds together, helped each other for fights, so we know each other,” Collins said. “It’s hard to talk shit about somebody that you know like that, but at the end of the day there’s a job to do on Saturday night.”
They are both 28, and McGregor has 17 fights (he’s 15-1-1) to Collins’ 16. They’ve been running parallel all the way through their time in boxing.
“I think we’ve been level-pegging for a long time I think the difference is that Lee was a bit on the scene before me he was on GB and stuff when we were amateurs and I wasn’t I didn't take boxing seriously at that time and then he turned pro when I went to the Commonwealth Games so he’d kind of got a foothold in the pro game before I even got to the pros. It wasn’t a case of one of us was better at one time or one of us wasn’t, it was just like different timings that we got to places.”
Collins admits that it was at 18 or 19 when he was not taking the sport seriously. That changed when his mom, Melanie, asked whether he felt he could be the best in Scotland at his weight.
“My mum said to me, ‘If you can't be the best in Scotland at your weight then why are you boxing?’ And that was in the Scottish Championships as an amateur in 2017, and I thought ‘You’re 100 per cent right, because if I can’t beat the people in Scotland, how am I meant to beat people across the world? And that applies to this now.”
His mom initially hated the idea of Collins boxing. She wanted him to go to university, where he started studying sports science before focusing on boxing.
Collins has since notched wins over the likes of Zak Miller, Jacob Robinson, Raza Hamza, and Francesco Grandelli. But McGregor is the best he has faced.
“I think he does everything well in general in terms of pressure,” Collins said of his opponent. “He’s good. He’s just a generally well-rounded fighter, I just do everything better. At the start, I think it’s going to be a bit cagey actually, and I think that we’re both going to try and work each other out. I don’t expect him to come out fast, but I don’t know. I think it’s one of the ones that I’ll find out when I get in there and that’s something I'm really good at, it’s adapting to what’s happening.”
There is a buzz in Scotland ahead of Collins-McGregor, and although Collins has fought at the Hydro before, he knows a Josh Taylor fight night will be special.
“I fought in the Hydro here actually three years ago, I fought Jacob Robinson. It was great, but the atmosphere in here with Josh headlining, it’s going to be something different.”
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, is on The Ring ratings panel and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.