CONLAN RETURNS
LESS than five months after suffering the first loss of his five-and-a-half year professional career, Michael Conlan returns to the real world at the SSE Arena in Belfast tomorrow night.
“We know how tough he is. Oscar can punch really hard and he didn’t take him out. Lomachecnko made him quit but that was because of how good Lomachenko is and he’s been in with the likes of Nicholas Walters and he’s given them all wars.
“He hasn’t been an easy fight for any of them really — bar Lomachenko probably — but he’s a tough guy, he comes to win. He’s going to see I’m just off my first loss, a Top Rank guy who he can go in and upset and he will come in with a lot of confidence.
“He’s a good fighter, he’s a smart guy, he knows how to fight and can keep himself safe in there,” said Conlan.
The chief supports on a tenfight back-up bill are a pair of ten-rounders between Tyrone McKenna and Chris Jenkins from Swansea at welterweight and Padraig McCrory and Marco Antonio Periban from Mexico City for the former’s WBC International Silver super-middleweight title.
McKenna, a 32-year-old local southpaw, has a record of 22-3 and one draw while Jenkins, a winner of the Prizefighter blitz tournament in 2013, has figures of 23-5-3 that include a win over Paddy Gallagher, a draw with Darragh Foley, and a loss to Philip Sutcliffe.
McCrory is a 34-year-old with a perfect 13-0 record while Periban is a 37-year-old who ended a five-year retirement just over three months ago and has a record of 26-5 and one draw.
There are two eight-rounders on the card, with the meeting of rookies Colm Murphy and Ruadhan Farrell being for the vacant Celtic featherweight crown.
The local duo — both turned 22 on January 21 last — have seven fights between them, four for Murphy and three for Farrell.
Clash
Also scheduled for eight rounds is the welterweight clash of Paddy Donovan and Tom Hill from Middlesbrough.
Donovan, a 23-year-old Limerick southpaw with an 8-0 record, is trained by Andy Lee while the 27-year-old Hill includes James Gorman and previously unbeaten Rohan Date among the victims in his 10-2 record.
Former amateur stars Sean McComb, James McGivern, Kurt Walker and Kieran Molloy are all featured in six-rounders.
McComb meets Ramiro Blanco from Nicaragua, McGivern faces Tony McGlynn from Crumlin, Walker is up against Marcos Gabriel Martinez from Argentina and Molloy goes in with Russian Evgenii Vazem.
There are a pair of scheduled four rounders. Dublin heavyweight Thomas Carty faces Czech Jiri Svacina and Belleek southpaw Fearghus Quinn fights England’s Seamus Devlin.