Willy Collins' huge funeral procession 'stopped for KFC' with gold coffin still in the hearse

Hundreds of mourners gathered in the Darnall and Pitsmoor areas for the lavish funeral of former bare knuckle boxer Willy Collins, 49, with a fleet of Rolls Royce cars, a huge American truck, bikers and vintage cars forming part of the massive cortege as it snaked around the city.

His gold-plated coffin, topped with a crown, was escorted to the cemetery by velvet suited mourners, some wearing crowns, in a white funeral carriage pulled by six yellow and blue feather plumed horses before being laid to rest in a tiled plot lined with pictures of the Last Supper.

It is also understood mourners stopped off at a KFC along the route, with pictures showing the cortege apparently stopping at the fast food branch in Sheffield Lane Top.

Eye-witnesses said the procession caused chaos as they blocked the crossroads at Sheffield Lane Top with a trail of bikes and quads.

Mr Collins, who was known to many as Big Willy Collins, passed away last month aged 49 in Port de Pollença, on the Spanish island of Majorca.

A post mortem revealed the father-of-nine, from Darnall, died of natural causes after a bleeding ulcer in his stomach burst to cause a haemorrhage.

Willy, who was born in Ireland, moved to Sheffield in 1980 and was a regular at Brendan Ingle's gym in Wincobank – often jogging miles across the city to get there every day.