Kathy Collins is not a native New Yorker. She was born on an Air Force base in Maryland in 1971 and spent her formative years in Georgia, coming to New York in 1990, planning on a nursing career. Those plans changed and Collins, seeking a new start in a new city, turned a search for an exercise regimen into joining the Academy of Boxing for Women, which turned into a connection with Frankie Globoschutz, owner of the Academy and founder and commissioner of the IWBF. It was also the beginning of her emergence and first step towards establishing Kathy Collins as a bona fide member in that cherished boxing contingent, a “New York fighter.”

With Collins, boxing not only seemed to  be the answer to the “what’s next” question, under the guidance of Globoschutz’s management and training, she turned professional in 1995 and proceeded to establish a literal “streaky”, but successful, record in the sport; winning her first four bouts, fighting draws in the next four, followed by seven straight wins.

All but one of those bouts was staged in the New York/New Jersey area where she quickly established herself as the “go to” boxer in a sport that was rapidly carving a niche in a major boxing metropolis that extended from Long Island to the Jersey shore.

Collins six year professional career, 1995-2001, encompassed twenty bouts and several title belts and her aggressive, move forward style, another characteristic of “New York” fighters, propelled her to an overall 14-2-4 record during a period that is, often, viewed as a high point for the sport from both a talent and TV coverage standpoint. And that high point period was achieved as a direct result of fighters such as Kathy Collins who not only were a new and exciting attraction inside the ropes but who, often, took the time and made the effort to be active, outspoken advocates for their sport outside the ring.

Collins was widely sought after by the media and her final bout, in Madison Square Garden, a close, majority decision loss to Christy Martin, is a fitting way to recall this deserving inductee into the International Women’s Boxing Hall of Fame, class of 2021.