THE simmering antagonism between Steve Collins and Nigel Benn burst into the open at the weigh in in Manchester last night. Fuel was added to the fire when supporters of Collins taunted Benn as he came to the scales concerning an incident in a night club recently.

Benn, quite sensibly, refused to be drawn and presented himself on the scales to weigh in just 1lb under the 12 stone super middleweight limit, and then turned his back as Collins came to the scales.

There were several moments of worry to follow as Collins seemed at first not to make the weight and was required to come back three times to the scales before Benn's trainer, Peter de Freitas, suggested that Collins was over the limit for the bout.

It was later revealed that Collins satisfied the supervisor of the bouts by weighing in exactly on the 12 stone limit.

NIGEL BENN lived up to his reputation as the bad boy of British boxing here in Manchester yesterday afternoon when he failed to turn up for a "head to head" press conference with Steve Collins prior to their world super middleweight title bout in the Nynex Centre tonight.

Benn, beaten by Collins here last July, was flying in from Tenerife yesterday, but made it known to the promoter, Frank Warren at the last minute that he had decided not to appear.

Warren was none too pleased and went so far as to suggest that Benn was in breach of his contractual obligations and that sanctions might be imposed as a result. Although he would not outline what those sanctions might be, his "we shall see" was an ominous, if diplomatic, reply to such questions.

With Benn absent, Collins grabbed with both hands the opportunity to charm the obviously disappointed media, giving a cooperative and laid back performance. "I am not worried or annoyed that he hasn't shown up," Collins said. "It will make no difference to the outcome of the fight."

"At the same time, I think he is being very unprofessional. He owes you guys, and through you the people who paid to get in or watch on television, the courtesy of being here. I'll tell him so as well when we meet at the weigh in."

Collins believes that Benn is well past his best, although he doesn't put it that bluntly. "He has been the most exciting thing in British boxing for several years; but he has been in too many wars for his own good and if he continues to fight people like me he's going to get hurt. I wouldn't want that to happen. Nobody wants it - quite honestly I think be should quit."

Collins admitted with some feeling that he has great respect for Benn, but that he had no doubt about the outcome of this fight "I know I'm going to knock him out - the earlier the better. I don't want the fight to go on too, long, because he'll just get hurt."

"I'm in better shape now than I was for the fight back in July. In that fight I took his best shot; the best he could hand out and unless he has grown a new arm since then, I can't see what else he can do."

Although the two men are the same age, Collins is right when he says that Benn has been in several bouts where he has been under pressure and has taken a lot of punishment. The Dubliner specifies the bout against Gerald McClellan in February of 1995, "I have had hard fights too, but not the kind of wars that he has been in," Collins said. "I believe his attitude is wrong. He seems to have an angel on one shoulder and a demon on the other. The angel tells him to give it up and he has taken that advice more than once; but then the demon coaxes him back. I don't think he's in the right frame of mind.

"I've been told that he was a good puncher in his prime, well I didn't notice that in the fight last July. People tell me he hit me with his best shots; but I didn't notice - they just bounced off me."

Collins's analysis is gaining currency here, where there is a growing feeling that Benn is merely coming for one last big payday. That would seem to be confirmed by his failure to show up for the press conference. He reportedly told Warren that if the tickets have all been sold there's no point in coming to a press conference to promote the fight.

Perhaps significantly, Warren who became quite animated when speaking of Robin Reid, the WBC champion, who may be one of Collins's next challengers. "That would be a great fight and I want it to come off," Warren said. "If it does it will be another sell out," he added.

Asked if Dublin might be a possible venue, he said that if the fight was to come to Ireland it would have to be staged at an outdoor venue in order to cope with the expected crowds.

Certainly the feeling among boxing people here is that Collins should win comfortably tonight.

The referee for the bout is Paul Thomas from England and the judges are Dennis Nelson from Minnesota, Roy Francis from England and Gordon Voleman from Chicago. The fight is expected to start at approximately 10.45.

There are two other world title fights on tonight's bill. The WBO featherweight championship bout between the holder `Prince' Naseem Hamed and Remigio Molina precedes the Collins fight. It is in turn preceded by the WBO light middleweight fight between the champion, Ronald Wright from Florida, and the British champion Ensley Bingham.