Contrasting fortunes for Barnes and Conlan in WSB

Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan experienced contrasting fortunes for Italia Thunder versus the Baku Fires in their opening bouts of the World Series of Boxing (WSB) season in Baku, Azerbaijan today.

Barnes beat Magomed Ibiyev on a unanimous decision (49-46,49-46,50-54) in the light-fly class, but Conlan was beaten (49-46,48-47.48-47) by Magomed Gurabov on a unanimous decision in the bantamweight class.

The Baku Fires won the five-bout match 4-1. Barnes was the only boxer to win for the Italian side today.

Billy Walsh and John Conlan were working the London 2012 bronze medallists’ corners this afternoon (Irish time).

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“A very good performance from Paddy, tremendous pace, accuracy and dominance. We thought he won every round, said Irish head coach Billy Walsh.

“Michael performed tremendously given that this is his first fight back since his hand injury. He had a fantastic first round and we thought he won three of the rounds. It was very tight against a tough opponent.”