Steve Collins Matchroom Boxing. Alongside him was Paul "Silky" Jones, his sparring partner and good friend who later went on to become WBO light-middleweight title holder. Collins was trained by Freddie King in the Romford training camp. In 1994, he won a world title by defeating Chris Pyatt by stoppage in five rounds to become the WBO middleweight champion. The following year he relinquished this title without a defence and was having difficulty making the weight. Again as a substitute he moved up to super-middleweight to challenge Chris Eubank for the WBO title after Eubank's scheduled opponent Ray Close withdrew after failing
Chris Eubank Jr. the fight to the point that his trainer, father Chris Eubank Sr., began imploring the referee to stop the fight. Following the eighth round, the elder Eubank instructed Eubank to stop hitting Blackwell in the head. The referee finally called a stop to the fight at 2:21 in the 10th round, and awarded Eubank the win, and the title, by TKO. Blackwell was taken to hospital with bleeding on the brain, and was placed in a medically-induced coma for treatment. After re-signing with Matchroom Sport, it was announced on Sky Sports on 18 May 2016 that Eubank will fight on