Conlan to fight for world title on August 1 ? – Feile going ahead as planned

As things stand Michael Conlan is on course to fight for a world title on August 1.

The Belfast featherweight is confident he will benefit from Shakur Stevenson vacating the WBO featherweight world title and challenge for the strap in his next fight.

When a potential world tilt can take place remains to be seen with the current pandemic preventing any sport from taking place.

However, August 1 and the Feile an Phobail still remain on the cards.

The Olympic bronze medal winner was always meant to fight during the festival and at the Falls Park for a second year running.

The current situation prompted most to predict the Feile would be postponed, leaving fight fans to assume a September return for the Top Rank fighter.

However, when speaking to the Irish News Feile director Kevin Gamble confirmed the festival is, as things stand, going ahead as originally planned.

“We’re ploughing away towards our original date which is the 30th of July until the 9th of August,” said Gamble..

“We’re taking account of developments and we’ll continue to keep an eye on that but we’re still planning towards our original dates. We’ll follow all the right advice and guidance and until we hear anything else then the dates are as they were set.

“If these have to change then we’ll certainly adapt but all our energy and focus is on trying to hit the target date of 30th of July.”

If the Feile does go ahead as planned Conlan should fight on Saturday August 1.

“It would be absolutely unbelievable for Mick to fight for the title and we are talking with the MTK and Top Rank teams,” said Kevin.

“We’ve been talking to them since last year and the talk was always that it would be a world title eliminator or, ideally if all the cards fell right, a world title shot for Mick and that’s the way it seems to be shaping up. Given what everyone is going through, it would be a massive boost for Feile and particularly for the community across the city to have Mick Conlan fighting for a world title at Falls Park. What a boost that would be for sport and for the city in general.”