Nathaniel Collins ‘gutted’ after split draw in European title bid

Glasgow’s Nathaniel Collins said he was “absolutely gutted” after fighting out a 12-round draw with European featherweight champion Cristobal Lorente at Braehead Arena.

Collins, 29, started strongly but the Spaniard, making his third defence, hit back in the closing stages, with the judges unable to separate them in a 115-113, 113-115, 114-114 split decision.

Collins had been hoping to set up a crack at a world title fight, with neither boxer coming through the WBC final eliminator.

“To me a draw is just as bad as a loss and, you know what, I hope we can run it back, in Glasgow again, and bring another big night back,” he wrote on social media.

“I’m absolutely gutted. Thank you so much everyone for the support.”

On the undercard, Drew Limond, the 19-year-old son of the late EBU super featherweight champion Willie, won his welterweight fight against Alexeyv Mikhail Arellano Leon with a fourth-round knockout.

There was further Scottish success at light heavyweight as Willy Hutchinson recorded a seventh-round knockout against Mark Jeffers and super middleweight as Alex Arthur Jr defeated Grzegorz Mardyla on points.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Reese Lynch outscored Jakub Laskowski at junior welterweight and junior featherweight Marcus Sutherland knocked out Kerim Agus in the first round.

Ireland’s Steve Collins Jr lost on points to Javier Santana in the light heavyweight bout.