Cristobal Lorente and Nathaniel Collins pledge rematch victory in WBC eliminator

Nathaniel Collins and Cristobal Lorente have both promised victory ahead of their Friday rematch, and both believe they won their first bout.

They battled to a hard-earned draw in October and meet once more in a final eliminator for Bruce Carrington’s WBC featherweight title with both aware of how high the stakes are.

“I’m excited for this opportunity again,” said the 20-0-3 (8 KOs) Spaniard Lorente. “I learned a lot in the first fight and now I’m coming with the work done to get the victory… I’m better than last time. I’m in good shape and I know what I need to do for victory again, because I won the last fight. I was the underdog in the first fight, no one believed in me, and I stayed in better shape than him in the final part of the fight.”

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“By any mean necessary,” Collins, 17-0-1 (8 KOs), said of how he planned to win. “I’m looking forward to running it back. It’s what I wanted. I’ve seen a few people say they were surprised to see this happen so soon, but it’s what needed to happen. It [the first fight] was a massive lesson for me. Don’t let my heart rule my head. Don’t get too caught up. Don’t get too involved. We’re there with a gameplan and we’re professionals. This time we will be sticking to the gameplan and the victory will come.”

Collins, whose wife is expecting their third baby imminently, said he has learned patience and discipline and he will fight his fight on Friday at Glasgow’s Hydro and, thus, envisages a different type of contest.

“The person that wins this fight goes onto a world title. It’s life changing money, life changing opportunities. The direction you can go, securing your family’s future. It’s important to everybody.”

The Glasgow show also sees the debut of Machlan Arthur, the youngest son of former WBO super featherweight champion Alex Arthur. Machlan will be fighting at 147lbs. Already Alex Arthur Jnr is a pro, and he’s 3-0 at light heavyweight.

“At three years old, I started training every single day. My dad used to make me run to nursery and I wasn’t even allowed to go to nursery without training, so I’m buzzing,” he said. “I’m buzzing for this next chapter. The year I was born, my dad won the world title. My mum was starting to get back to work, my brothers were at school and my dad used to bring me to the gym. So from the day I started walking, I started boxing.”