STEVE COLLINS has pencilled in July 5th and Glasgow as the date and venue for his next fight, but he still doesn't know who his opponent will be.

Collins was dressed in a kilt when he appeared at a press conference in Glasgow yesterday and also sported a Celtic bow tic to underline his status as the `Celtic Warrior'. He announced that, as a life-long supporter of the club, his ambition was to defend his title at Celtic Park. There was no concession to the supporters of a different Glasgow club.

The most likely opponent is the Swedish boxer Leif Keiski, but Collins also issued a challenge to the American Frank Liles, who is the WBA super middleweight champion. He's running scared," said Collins.

Keiski has a very good record in his career to date with only one defeat in 21 bouts. This is made more impressive by the fact that 18 of his victories were within the distance.

Among the other contenders for Collins' WBO title are the Americans Simon Brown and Charles Brewer, but Liles is the one who is really in Collins' sights and it is the fight which would attract most attention from the fans and the television viewers in the United States.

Collins believes that Lilcs is simply avoiding a unification bout. "There are two ways of getting out of a fight. You can just refuse point blank or ask for too much money. That's what Liles is doing. I really don't care. I will fight him winner-takes-all if he likes. He's just avoiding me and people can make up their own minds about why he is doing that," Collins said.

Meanwhile, Darren Corbett has challenged Chris Eubank following Corbett's victory in the Commonwealth cruiserweight title fight in Belfast on Monday night. It was an impressive performance by Corbett who had his opponent down three times before the referee stopped the bout after 23 seconds in the third round to save the Nigerian Chris Okoh further punishment.

Corbett's promoter Barry Hearn, who previously managed both Eubank and Steve Collins, offered a purse of £400,000 for the fight between Corbett and Eubank. If Chris is serious about a comeback, after being beaten twice by Collins, then he should stop taking meaningless fights in the desert and take a genuine fight.

"I believe that Corbett can come down in weight quite substantially and could win titles at three different weights," said Hearn.

There were three other victories for local boxers on the bill at the new Waterfront Complex. Kevin McBride from Clones claimed the Irish heavyweight title when he beat his former Olympic team-mate Paul Douglas on a stoppage in the fifth round.

At middleweight, Danny Ryan from Donegal beat Danny Guma from Ghana on points over six rounds and Eamon Magec from Belfast beat Kevin McKillem from Manchester on a stopage in the third.

Another boxer with strong Irish connections, P J Gallagher, who is based in London, got good news from his medical advisers this week. He seemed to be suffering from exhaustion and his testoster-one level and blood count were both well below what they should have been. The medical team decided that Gallagher, whose family hail from Offaly, had been training too hard and a rest got things back to normal.

I had been training seven hours a day instead of two or three. I was even sleep-walking at night," he said yesterday.

The British super featherweight champion will now defend his title against Charles Shepherd in Bethnal Green, London on June 30th.