On Saturday night, Nathaniel Collins put friendship aside and took apart his former amateur international teammate, Lee McGregor, in the fourth round of their all-Scottish featherweight clash in Glasgow.

Collins (17-0, 8 KOs) produced a ruthless exhibition of aggressive southpaw counter-punching and floored the former European bantamweight champion three times, ending matters with a hard left to the body.

Collins, 28, carried out his post-fight interview with the WBC Silver featherweight title slung over his shoulder and wasted little time in stating his future ambitions.

“I dreamed about a WBC belt my whole life and now I want Stephen Fulton for the full WBC title. America or Riyadh, make it happen,” he said before describing how a fight with the Philadelphian would go.

“The same way [as the McGregor fight]. I'm not here to make big statements, I'm here to be a world champion.”

In 2023, Collins burst onto television screens with a stunning 24 second knockout of Raza Hamza but despite his long unbeaten run and a flawless record at title level, he has flown under the radar.

Solid wins over fighters like James Beech, current British and commonwealth champion, Zak Miller, and Francesco Grandelli earned him the respect of knowledgable boxing people but stopping an accomplished, seasoned fighter like McGregor is the type of result that should finally see him break through into the wider consciousness.

“I've always had the ability to do that and I've said since the start of my career that I've got those performances in me. I think everyone knew but I've never really had the proper chance to prove it and now I'm here, in my hometown, with the best crowd in the world,” he said as he took in his surroundings.

“I'm a world-class boxer and I can punch. You’ve seen it before on my Queensbury debut [against Hamza].

“I've fought some tough guys and I've been through some stuff myself. That was the best Nathaniel Collins there's ever been tonight. I said that at the press conference, “You're going to see the best Nathaniel Collins” and he turned up.”

The victory will have worked wonders for Collins’ hopes of securing a world title shot but the evening also had a whole other dimension for he and his supporters.

Last May, Collins was just days removed from a hard twelve round win over Italy’s Francesco Grandelli when he was taken to hospital with severe abdominal pain. He quickly found himself being rushed into theatre for life-saving surgery to correct a twisted bowel.

For Collins to have recovered and got back in the ring so quickly is one thing, to have then gone on to produce a break through performance is quite another.

“If you’d told me one year later that I'd be here, putting on a performance of a lifetime like that, in front of all these people, you'd have laughed,” he said, remembering his ordeal.

“I had so many doubters and I had so many demons to fight, not just Lee. I overcame everything in my own head and my mind and I can't explain it in words.”