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Féile boss wants annual Mick Conlan fight night


Mick Conlan already has an annual outing in New York on St Patrick’s Day and the Belfast featherweight could have another starting on August 3rd.

Conlan [11(6)-0] will fight at the Féile na Phobail this summer taking on Olympic defeator Vladimir Nikitin at the Falls Park at the festival’s director, Kevin Gamble, is keen to make it an annual occassion.

Gamble was speaking at the press conference to announce Conlan-Nikitin yesterday and stressed that it does not need to be a one-off

“Let’s keep building this relationship Mick Conlan this year – lets keep building it for years to come,” he told iFL TV.

“For us, what we want to see is everyone wanting to fight at the Féile bill every year, year after year.”

Gamble sees the occassion on August 3rd replicating that of Madison Square Garden on March 17th.

The event boss noted how “over the last number of years people have jumped on a plane to go to New York on St Paddy’s Day to watch Mick fighting. Now they can jump into a black taxi five minutes down the road and see the same type of performance, the same type of set up, the professionalism of the whole night and literally enjoy that atmosphere here.”

Indeed, Gamble wants to go bigger – and, only somewhat tongue-in-cheek, suggested former heavyweight champ Tyson Fury, a Top Rank stablemate of Conlan, could feature in the future.

The Belfast organiser said that “tf Tyson Fury wants to fight at the Falls Park in 2020, I am sure Jamie and the guys can make that happen.”

“Anything can happen now. We have the relationship and the confidence and the trust is there with the two brands working together and what we want to do is build an appittite for people to want to come and fight in Belfast on the Féile every year working with the Féile, MTK, Top Rank and ESPN all the top people in boxing involved.”

“It will be great for boxing and Belfast.”

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Jonny Stapleton

Irish-boxing.com contributor for 15 years and editor for the past decade. Have been covering boxing for over 16 years and writing about sports for a living for over 20 years. Former Assistant Sports editor for the Gazette News Paper Group and former Tallaght Voice Sports Editor. Have had work published in publications around the world when working as a freelance journalist. Also co-founder of Junior Sports Media and Leinster Rugby PRO of the Year winner. email: editoririshboxing@gmail.com

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