‘NOT DONE’ – Michael Conlan to Fight On and Prove Naysayers Wrong
Just like he did to the judges after being robbed in Rio Micheal Conlan is ready to flip the bird to those who said he should retire.
The Irish boxing legend this morning confirmed he will continue to compete professionally – and did so in typically defiant fashion.
Conlan’s future was put for debate after he suffered a surprise stoppage defeat to Jordan Gill in Belfast last December. Despite the fact he had just turned 32 the month previous, a third career defeat led to calls for him to call time on his career in the moments and days after the fight.
Ireland’s only male Elite World Championships gold medal winner seemed to hear those calls, as the Belfast favourite admitted there was a decision to be made and a period of soul-searching lay ahead.
It appears his soul is well and truly searched and speaking to Irish-boxing.com today, the two-time world title challenger confirmed his pro journey has not come to an end.
‘It’s not done. It’s not done. How can I end things how they ended,” he tells Irish-boxing.com.
It’s not a decision Conlan, who works alongside his brother Jamie Conlan in Conlan Boxing, made lightly.
The Belfast featherweight, who admits the itch to return to the ring has only got to the point where it needs scratching in recent weeks, studied his last performance in-depth and comes back confident he fell to a level of performance he won’t sink to again.
“I look back on my last performance and it wasn’t even me in the ring. It was a terrible performance. I probably shouldn’t have been in the ring, there was a lot of sh*t going on in my life, in my family and it probably wasn’t the right time for that fight,” he adds.
Being able to understand the reasons behind the defeat have helped Conlan take it on the chin. They have also allowed him to beat his chest and declare he will fight on and prove some people wrong.
“That’s just the way things go, you roll the dice and you make mistakes sometimes. These things happen. I paid the price, I lost, unfortunately, but we go forward and I don’t think that was a fair assessment of me in there that night, so I look forward to shutting up the naysayers and the doubters and that will happen eventually.”
It appears the gloves will remain off the hook but also off Conlan’s fists for a little while yet. There was rumour he may have a Feile outing but Kevin Cronin’s manager is looking more toward an Autumn return.
“I’m going to roll them again. It’s nothing official yet but If I am looking, I’m looking at November December time.”
Speaking earlier in the interview and before he declared emphatically he would fight on, Conlan revealed any comeback would involve another world title push, simultaneously quashing farewell fight rumors.
“The time away from the game has been very beneficial to me, not being in the ring, not being in the gym, training but not boxing training, not focus on boxing in terms of myself more the promotion and the managing. With the time away I’m starting to get that bit of an itch and to be honest I still believe I can go and achieve what I said I would do. If I do go again I’m doing it for no other reason than to achieve my goals.”
