Collins seeks 'Scotland v England' bout with Ball

Nathaniel Collins (right) has 17 wins from 17 fights

Scottish featherweight Nathaniel Collins is targeting an all-British world title showdown with Nick Ball at the turn of the year.

The Glasgow fighter is coming off a stunning win over Scottish rival Lee McGregor at the Hyrdo last month and expects to be back fighting in his home city in September.

Collins, 28, hopes that will be the springboard to a fight with WBA champion Ball who, like Collins, is promoted by Frank Warren's Queensberry.

"I just want to be cracking on to world titles now," Collins told BBC Scotland.

"It's easy for Queensberry to make world title fights because I'm a featherweight, they've got a world champion featherweight in Nick Ball.

"He's fighting in Saudi Arabia in the next couple of months as well so by the end of the year, or starting next year, that's an easy fight to make.

"An all British, Scotland v England world title fight - it makes sense."

Liverpool fighter Ball, 28, is unbeaten in 23 professional fights and claimed the WBA title with a thrilling win over Raymond Ford in Riyadh last summer.

Collins has also yet to taste defeat in his 17 contests as a pro and has no fears of taking on a man considered one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the UK.

"We were meant to fight a couple of years ago for the British title and things didn't work out that way and then I've been calling for that ever since," Collins added.

"Now's the time for it because he's having a great career and building a lot of attention, I'm starting to build a lot of attention, so hopefully within the next six months that becomes a thing that comes to fruition."

Collins described his appearance on the Josh Taylor v Ekow Essuman undercard, in which he dropped McGregor three times and stopped him in the fourth round, as "the best night ever".

Now as he prepares to headline his own show in September back in Glasgow, Collins wants to ensure big fight nights in Scotland continue to be a feature on the boxing calendar.

"That was the goal when I first signed with Queensbury, I said I want to bring big nights back to Scotland and Glasgow," he said.

"I grew up going to Ricky Burns' fights and that made me want to do this. It was spoken about before the last fight, the winner of me and Lee's fight would continue to carry the torch as they say, and hopefully I can keep doing it."