Elite amateur experience a Golden Contract help claims Conlan

Jamie Conlan believes an elite amateur background could prove an advantage in the Golden Contract tournament, which gloves off tonight at York Hall.

The eight fighters vying for a six figure five fight contract with a major international promoter – rumoured to be Top Rank – only discovered who they will face in the quarter finals as recent as Tuesday.

That effectively gave the featherweight contestants around three days to prepare.

It’s in total contrast to any major contest the eight would have gone into previously as a pro.

Most pros have between six to eight weeks to study their pending foe and time to devise and perfect a game plan.

However, those that can draw on elite amateur experience could be used to late notice with regard to opponents and will have experience of preparing for more than one eventuality.

That could prove essential going into tonight’s exciting quarter finals surmises MTK Global Professional Development Coordinator, Conlan.

“Having an elite level amateur background will come into play in this tournament, but as a professional it is different and very hard for the coaches and teams,” the former world title challenger explained.

“You have to applaud them for taking this chance, as you’ll usually have 10 to 12 weeks to analyse dissect the opponent, but here you don’t know what you’ll get,” he added before expressing his excitement ahead of the featherweight quarterfinals.

“I’m very excited. You don’t usually get four mains fight where all eight fighters is the a-side in their own right They’ve all taken this opportunity to better their careers and there is a lot of risk, so it’s very exciting. At the draw the atmosphere changed and got very tense and serious when the draw was done, everyone means business now.”

Sky Sports have picked up the card and will broadcast all three stages of all three tournaments – the welterweight and crusierweight installments will play out later this year- and their head of Boxing is equally as excited.

“This is a magnificent idea. It’s a real chance for a group of fighters to get their careers going and under the spotlight.

“I’m really excited about it, and the winner can have an exciting career, We’ve got a great class of fighters here, and it’s important that there is a strong first showing with the featherweights, so I can’t wait to get going.”