What I didn’t achieve as a fighter, I want to do now

Ali, of course. Rocky Marciano. One poster that catches the eye is for ‘The Fight’ — Hagler’s thrilling battle with Tommy ‘Hitman’ Hearns in Las Vegas in 1985, considered one of the greatest bouts of all time.

The Marciano and Hagler memorabilia are nods to Collins’ own education as a trainer, the years spent learning from Goody Petronelli in his famous gym in Brockton.

On December 7 in Castlebar, three of Collins’ fighters — Ray Moylette, Spike O’Sullivan and Craig O’Brien — will form part of a card that goes out live on TG4. Moylette’s fighting for a WBC belt in lightweight and a move up the rankings.

O’Sullivan, who has moved down to light-middleweight, and O’Brien are trying to rebound from recent defeats. It promises to be a big night for Irish professional boxing and Collins is at the centre of it.

‘We have had a good year,’ he accepts of 2018, which has also seen Gorey’s Niall Kennedy move up the heavyweight rankings. ‘But in sport, you had ups and downs. I never say it has been a bad year, it has just been a year that you treat as a lesson and learn from.’

Collins runs a tight ship. He trains eight boxers and manages six of them, including O’Sullivan, who has redirected his target of a world title to light-middleweight after losing the middleweight title eliminator to David Lemieux on the Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin undercard in September.

‘Spike should have moved down a weight a year or two ago,’ Collins explains. ‘But it was hard because the big fights were at middleweight, with Canelo and Golovkin. ‘The last night, Lemieux came in 19lbs heavier than Spike, who was on the 160lb limit even after re-fuelling.’