Scottish boxer Nathaniel Collins has put his body “through hell and back” in his bid to move a “massive” one step away from achieving his world title dream.
After he and Spain’s Cristobal Lorente contested a draw in Glasgow in October, the pair will do it again at the city’s Hydro Arena later this month – and the stakes are high once more.
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The winner will become the official mandatory challenger for the WBC featherweight title.
“I am feeling great – the camp has been brutal, I have put my body through hell and back, so I am really looking forward to just getting out there and going and getting the job done,” Collins told BBC Scotland.
“I have just done more training sessions, longer training sessions, harder training sessions. We took ourselves away to Los Angeles for eight, nine days for world-class sparring with world champions, so I have really left no stone unturned.
“It was amazing, I sparred the previous featherweight world champion, he has just moved up [a weight], Mark Magsayo. I sparred with a couple of Russian guys, it was exceptional.
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“The sparring out in America, it is different to what you get here. You are in with people who have been there at world level at different weights, multiple weights.
“They don’t know you, they don’t care about you, they are coming to take your head off basically, so it is not friendly, everybody is watching you.”
Collins has a near perfect professional record, with the draw against the similarly undefeated Lorente the only blemish in his 18 senior outings.
“I have felt for a long time it has been my time, but I am getting on,” the man nicknamed ‘The Nightmare’ admitted.
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“I am 30 years old this year, I have been in the game a long time, so it is definitely time to break through and become the person that I think I should be and I am meant to be.
“I have been in the game 14, 15 years now, so it is not as if it is a small build-up which has just happened. I have really been through every stage, from nothing to here.
“It is the final hurdle, I have overcome loads of different blocks and bits and bobs where I have been like ‘am I going to make it? Am I going to get there?’ And then this is the last one before the big prize.”
Collins started well against Lorente at Braehead Arena in October, but his opponent battled back into it, with the judges unable to separate them in a 115-113, 113-115, 114-114 split decision.
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He believes there have been crucial lessons learned from that initial encounter with the Spaniard, who has since vacated the European featherweight belt that was also on the line first time round.
“The crowd kind of took over once I got him hurt and I thought the knockout was coming, I was looking for it,” he recalled.
‘When I fought Lee McGregor at the Hydro [last May], I took my time, I picked my shots even when I had him hurt. This time I went gung-ho, it was a bit out of character for me.”