McGregor & Collins vie to fly Scottish flag

Josh Taylor has been flying the flag for Scottish boxing for a long time, but with the Tartan Tornado now in the twilight of his career, Lee McGregor and Nathaniel Collins are vying to pick up the baton.

The pair meet in a highly anticipated all-Scottish featherweight contest on the undercard of Taylor’s fight against England’s Ekow Essuman at Glasgow’s Hydro on 24 May.

Both fighters are talented, hungry and have had to overcome significant challenges to get to this stage. Now it is fork in the road time for both boxers.

For the winner, the road opens up to kick on for the next level and challenge for world honours. For the loser, that opportunity may never come around again.

McGregor told BBC Scotland: “Myself and Nathaniel’s name were always getting mentioned to be the next one coming through after Josh decides to call it a day.

“We’re the next in line to keep flying the flag for Scotland and we’re now fighting each other. The winner of this fight will be sort of leading the pack of Scottish boxing once Josh decides enough is enough for him.

“It’s a massive fight, it’s been brewing for a few years. When you get opportunities like this, you can’t turn them down.”

McGregor is coming off the highest profile win of his career, a points victory over Isaac Lowe in Riyadh in December on the undercard of the Tyson Fury v Oleksander Usyk rematch.

That win breathed new life into a career that had stalled after a promising start and, for reasons beyond anything that is happened in the ring, Collins has also found himself having to rebuild.

McGregor’s fellow 28-year-old explained: “I won the British title, signed with Queensbury and I was on a great run, beating all domestic opponents.

“My last fight I won the European silver title, which had made me mandatory for the European. I ended up having a twisted bowel, which just kind of came out of nowhere a week after I fought, so that’s put my career on kind of pause for about 10-11 months.

“It’s been a bit of a wild ride the last year or so because I recovered from this surgery – I got surgery on my nose. I just seem to have been a bit through the wars, but I think that’s made me more resilient.

“Coming into this big 50-50 fight, I’ll look across the ring at Lee McGregor and think, ‘you can’t do anything to me because I’ve already been through so much’.”

He and McGregor are “almost mirror images in our situations”, Collins suggested.

“Lee’s got a wee girl, his family to provide for, I’ve got a wee girl, my family to provide for,” he added.

“We’ve both had these big setbacks, we’ve both come through the other end of it. We’ve shared countless trips and rooms with Team Scotland, we’ve sparred hundreds of rounds in the gym.

“We’re both at that same stage where this fight here can propel us to the next level.”

The mutual respect and friendship between the fighters is clear, but the rivalry between Edinburgh fighter McGregor and Glasgow’s Collins – and what’s at stake for both men – makes this one of the most intriguing domestic fights in years for Scottish boxing fans.