Toowoomba’s IBF Australasian champion Steven Spark and world Muay Thai sensation Chadd Collins are set to collide with fate bringing the pair together for a title showdown in Toowoomba on November 14.
Spark and Collins will meet for the WBC Australasian super lightweight championship at Rumours International.
Spark has stamped himself one of Australia’s most feared super lightweights as he bids for a world top-15 ranking on the back of 10 pro victories and his last-fight demolition of Michael Whitehead in July this year.
On November 14 he enters a new world against an opponent already at the top of the world Muay Thai tree and now keen to make his mark in boxing ring.
Collins is the son of former Australian pro boxing champion Jimmy Collins and has based himself for the last seven years in Thailand where he has met and beaten many of the world’s Muay Thai best.
He has built a record of 64 fights for 51 wins with 23 of those by knockout.
He has fought for two WBC Muay Thai world titles and last year he was ranked number one in the world before the intervention of COVID-19.
The world pandemic has severely disrupted world Muay Thai fighting.
Collins is keen to use the disruption to his advantage in a cross-code switch where he now aims to follow in his father’s boxing footsteps.
“I love a fight, Spark loves a fight and this is going to be a hell of a fight,” Collins said of his next ring challenge.
Spark’s trainer-manager Brendon Smith said Collins’s world record and reputation will present the Toowoomba fighter with his toughest test to date.
“Chadd has an incredible Muay Thai record and a huge following around the world,” Smith said.
“He’s won three WKN Australian pro titles and is a WKBF pro champion.
“He’s fought in Paris, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and many other countries.
“He’s currently rated in the world top 10 and was to fight in the World Super 8 in Japan this April before COVID-19 hit.
“He’s back in Australia now and is keen to leave his stamp in the boxing world alongside his father.
“And there is no better way than to take on Australia’s most talked about super lightweight champion, Steven Spark.
“There will be a lot of interest in the cross-code meeting.
“COVID has forced the hand of a lot of Muay Thai fighters now looking to turn their talents to boxing.
“There has been a long-held theory in boxing circles that Muay Thai fighters don’t have the hands.
“But what we have seen of Chadd he has some weapons.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to holds him in the same esteem as a John Wayne Parr.
“All Muay Thai champions are very strong mentally. They are very tough men in a brutal sport.
“We believe this is our toughest test to date. The stakes just got higher for Steven.”