Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Conlan is too hot for Bern
MICHAEL CONLAN switched to southpaw to hammer out a Madison Square Garden hat-trick in a two round demolition of David Berna on St Patrick’s Day.
The Hungarian feather was down in the first and second rounds after lefts to the body and head and the fight was waved off by ref Eddie Claudio with Conlan punishing his opponent on the ropes.
The win, Conlan’s first under new coach Adam Booth, improves the undefeated two-time Irish Olympian to six straight victories and also improves his KO ratio to 83 per cent.
The first round body punch that dropped Berna, who had won 15 of his 17 fights prior to Saturday’s scheduled eight-rounder, was textbook.
“Once I turned to the southpaw stance I felt that that shot was going to be a comfortable shot for me to land. It put him down, it looked like it sucked the life out of him so I was happy,” said Belfastman Conlan.
The 26-year-old was happy with his performance and believes Saturday’s
TKO was an improvement his debut victory at the same venue on March 17, 2017 and now wants to fight at home for the first time in the paid ranks.
“I feel I’ve improved since my first year as a pro fighter which I felt I have, especially under my new coach. I want to fight back in Belfast,” added the London 2012 bronze medallist
“There was talk about a Belfast fight being in June. Look at this crowd, we’d sell out any arena in Ireland. We got to get back to Ireland.”
Meanwhile, unbeaten Portlaoise super-bantam TJ Doheny improved to 19 wins after stopping Connecticut’s Mike Oliver in the second round at the Gardens.