Michael Conlan fears some fighters may end up homeless – calls for promoters to help

Micheal Conlan fears the COVID-19 crisis and the lack of boxing could leave some boxers homeless.

With fight card and fights cancelled in abundance due to social distancing, the featherweight world title hopeful fears for fighters financial welfare.

Indeed, he has called for promoters to step in and help in cases where fighters may struggle.

The Olympic medalist seen his March 17 clash in New York cancelled and while it was a set back Conlan admits it wasn’t financially disastrous for him personally.

The Belfast fighter claims that won’t be the case for the majority of fighters out there.

“The majority of fighters are living from one pay cheque to the next so if they don’t fight they don’t get paid and that is devastating. Now we really don’t know when boxing will be on again and I fear that some boxers could end up homeless because they can’t afford to pay the mortgage or the rent and all the other bills they have.

“Everyone on that New York card would have been training for a long time but because it’s cancelled none of them got paid. This is the way professional boxing is and a lot of fighters are going to hit hard times because of this deadly virus,” he said before calling for promoters to take action.

“I know that this is a mercenary sport, it’s a brutal business, but I feel that some of the top promoters could look at what they could do for their fighters to help them get through the next three months or so.

“Even my own promoters Top Rank could maybe give their fighters who need it something like two thousand a month to help guys survive and the same could go for the big promoters in the UK. It would be a great gesture.

“I know the promoters will say that they’re not making money because there are no shows and no TV revenue but I’m sure they could help in some way until we are through the worst of this crisis.”