Mick Conlan to face recent World Title challenger in Belfast Homecoming fight
A recent legitimate world title challenger is being lined up as Michael Conlan‘s first ever Belfast pro opponent.
The Olympic bronze medalist fights at home as a pro for the first time on Saturday June 30th and the Falls Road featherweight will face Brazilian Adeilson Dos Santos [19(15)-4(2)] over ten rounds, live on BoxNation and BT Sport.
The Bahia banger is a noted puncher and has picked up numerous belts in South America.
Of his four defeats, one of those came in a world title fight, the most recent away in Russia and another on the road against an English name.
Dos Santos’s first defeat came at the gloves of English stylist Kid Galahad where the Brazilian went 12 rounds in an IBF Youth rankings title fight.
His next reverse came against countryman Fabian Oscar Orozco before two knockout wins earned him a shot at Jessie Magdaleno and the WBO super bantamweight title now held by Isaac Dogboe – who Belfast fight fans might recall fighting at the Waterfront in 2014.Â
The Mexican-American – who was at that point a gym-mate of Conlan – claimed a second round stoppage win in this fight last April, dropping Dos Santos twice. The South American scored a comeback win and moved up to featherweight where he was then beaten in Russia by prospect Evgeny Smirnov
Dos Santos represents a huge step up for Conlan who will first box in his second eight-rounder on May 12th.
2015 World amateur champion Conlan began his pro career with a decent test – Tim Ibarra, a solid amateur, over six rounds. This was followed by a poor opponent in Mexican spoiler Alfredo Chanez before taking on Australian title challenger Jarrett Owen and Kansas Golden Gloves champ Kenny Guzman.
Following four knockout wins he took on tough and game Argentine Luis Molina who he outpointed before stopping trumped-up Hungarian David Berna
On May 12th he faces a step up in Spaniard Ibon Larrinaga on the Linares-Lomachenko undercard at Madison Square Garden in New York before a colossal jump up in the Summer.
It was said that Team Conlan, out of respect for Larrinaga, didn’t want to announce the name of Dos Santos at yesterday’s press conference, instead just describing how his June 30th foe was a former world title challenger.
However, today the name has gone public, with The Irish News being the first to report so.
