Misfits London results: Pereira's coach Plinio Cruz stops Gary Olive, James Collins loses debut

Collins, 43, took the fight on short notice for his boxing debut, survived a third-round knockdown and lost a split decision to Big Stacks at the Copper Box Arena.

By Combat Sports UK Staff · Published Sat 10 Oct, 21:36 UK · AI-assisted reporting

Plinio Cruz celebrates in the ring at the Copper Box Arena after stopping Gary Olive — Photo: Misfits Boxing

Alex Pereira's long-time coach Plinio Cruz stopped Gary Olive in the second round of his Misfits Boxing debut at the Copper Box Arena in London on Saturday, and former West Ham and Wales defender James Collins lost a split decision to Big Stacks after being knocked down.

Cruz, 40, had Olive unable to continue 58 seconds into the second round. It was the first boxing match for the Brazilian heavyweight, who has an 8-9 professional MMA record.

He had been due to fight Misfits heavyweight champion Chase DeMoor, who pulled out with an injury less than a week before the card. DeMoor's coach, Olive, took the fight on short notice.

In the ring afterwards, Cruz said: "The gang got me ready. I trained hard and I lost 100 pounds for this fight."

He also turned on DeMoor: "First of all, props to Gary he boxes better than Chase. [Chase] didn't have the balls to be in his coach's corner... What kind of champ is that he can't even back up his family."

Collins, 43, was also making his boxing debut, having stepped in on short notice after The Apprentice's Tom Skinner withdrew from the fight with Big Stacks, who bills himself as the "UK's Hardest Man". Stacks dropped Collins with a big hook in the third round, but the former centre back got up and went the distance. Two judges scored it for Stacks, 39-36 and 38-37, and the third had it 38-37 for Collins.

Collins won 51 caps for Wales and played more than 200 games for West Ham across two spells before retiring in 2020.

Results

Big Stacks beat James Collins by split decision (39-36, 37-38, 38-37)
Jordan McCann beat Mo Deen by TKO, 0:37 of round 2
Plinio Cruz beat Gary Olive by TKO, 0:58 of round 2
Nitboy and Kane West beat Cracky Tokky and Little T by unanimous decision (39-36, 39-36, 40-35)
Carla Jade beat Erika Night by unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 49-46) to keep the Misfits women's lightweight title
Lil CraCra beat Joey Knight and Andrew Howson in a survivor tag match, 2:32 of round 3