INTERVIEW: Why Michael Conlan says nothing will stop him winning gold in Rio

Michael Conlan doesn’t feel the pressure when people come to him and say they expect him to return from Rio with an Olympic gold medal. The truth is he likes it. He likes the expectation because he’s not thinking about doing anything else.

“If somebody was to say to me. ‘You’re not going to win gold’, that would be a bad vibe coming towards me. It’s good for me that people think I'm going to win.”

His friend Paddy Barnes calls Conlan the “most skilful boxer ever to come out of Ireland”.  He is 2/1 to win gold at the Olympics. He is European and world champion, he won gold at the Commonwealth games. He qualified for the Olympics more than a year ago. And then he qualified again. Conan is everything Ireland could hope for in a sports star, but one thing baffles him and it isn’t the expectation.

When the year began, the World Champion expected the next 12 months to be very different. It was an Olympics year and he expected the sponsors to be knocking down his door.

“On the world stage, boxing is our best sport and always will be,” he says. “It is our best Olympic sport. We come back with the goods every time. There is expectation to come back with medals. I was looking at it, me and Paddy are 4/1 to come back with two Olympic golds and Ireland’s never got that in recent times. They are expecting that kind of thing off you, you would expect sponsorship.”

He doesn’t know why he hasn’t heard from sponsors, and anyone who has watched him box or listen to him talk would be baffled as well.

“It’s a mystery to me. I feel like I’m a very marketable person. I’m not going to step out of line and ruin anybody’s brand. I don’t know, it just goes over my head. It’s just what it is.”

Conlan plans to turn professional after the Olympics. He has more responsibility now since his daughter Luisne was born 13 months ago. Leaving her at home when he goes to fight is hard, he says, and it’s going to get harder as she gets older, but it’s part of what drives him now.

“It makes me want it more. It makes me know that what I’m doing is actually for someone. It’s not for a bloody fancy lifestyle, it’s so that my daughter can have a life I didn’t have. I come from west Belfast, a poverty-stricken area. If I can do something for her that I would have loved to have dome for me as a kid, then I’ll do that for my daughter.”

Plenty of things drive Michael Conlan. He is talking at the ESB head office in Dublin where he is part of Electric Ireland’s #ThePowerWithin campaign. Electric Ireland is a sponsor of Team Ireland and the campaign will highlight the resolve of Ireland’s Olympians. They probably couldn’t have picked a better athlete to be part of the campaign.

“It’s fitting, the power within. I have great belief in myself. That is my power within it, my self-belief. It’s perfect for this campaign,” he says.

He’s always had self-belief, he says, but it’s not as strong as it is today. “[The 2012 Games] cemented it. I went to London and I was told not to worry about medals, just to enjoy it. They said to me ‘Rio is your games’. I said, ‘no, ‘no, no, I’m getting gold here'.”

He got bronze but the message was clear, as was his talent. Since then the talent has made its mark. He qualified for the Olympics through the World Series of Boxing, but it made huge demands on him. His baby was due on March 12th and he flew out that day to fly in Italy. Luisne was born on March 23rd. Conlan flew out a day later for another fight. “I didn’t get to spend the night with her because she was in hospital.”

He hadn’t slept in 48 hours but “it was one of my best performances.” He qualified for the Olympics through the WSB and the past two years have contributed to that growing self-belief.

“How inexperienced I was in 2012 was unreal. I’d never boxed for Ireland underage. I was a novice, I was a boy. I had never done strength and conditioning work. I’m a fully fledged bantamweight now. Very strong, very fit, very smart. It’s only getting better.”

He might have to fight professionals in Rio, if they qualify. It doesn’t deter him, he says, as fighting three rounds at Olympic level makes different demands than the long bouts.

None of it seems to matter to him anyway as he feels he can overcome any hurdle.

“I’m more confident in my ability. I know what I am and what I can do. I know I’ve beaten them all already. Back in 2012, before I got a medal I was thinking I’m never going to get a medal. Then when I got bronze, I was like, ‘I’m only going to get bronze’. Then when I got silver, it was, ‘I’m only going to get silver’. Then I got gold, it was, ‘I’m going to always win gold’. They might have to give me a platinum now. I don’t see it as cockiness, I see it as complete confidence in my own ability.”

With this self-belief, it’s not a shock that he's impressed with Conor McGregor.

“I think he’s phenomenal for Irish sport. He’s like marmite for some people. I think he’s brilliant. What’s he done just by talking is unreal. He’s changed the whole sport of MMA and especially the brand of UFC. He’s made it even bigger than what it is. I really admire him. I think he’s a great fighter too. I look forward to seeing him win.”

Not surprisingly, he is on McGregor’s side in his struggle with the UFC.

“I think it’s brilliant. He has a right to, he’s made them a lot of money. They’ve made him a lot of money too. He’s in a better position. He’s their number one fighter on the roster.”

If McGregor and UFC overshadow boxing these days, Conlan knows who to blame.

“That’s boxing’s fault. Look when Prince Naseem was around, look how much attention boxing was getting. When there’s characters like that… It’s the people who are running it, they need to have something set up and maybe run it a bit better. It’s their own fault that they’re falling behind MMA because it’s getting huge from one man.”

Conlan has the ability to make it big as well. Ireland will go to the Olympics with the once presiding genius of Billy Walsh elsewhere, but he says the team will be ok. Walsh was great, he says, but they’ll survive.

They have Zaur Antia now and Conlan has always seen him as the main man.

“Zaur was always seen as the back man, when he was really the front man.”

There are a lot of people central to the remarkable story of Irish boxing. Conlan and Barnes are two of them, two incredible talents from Belfast who have given so much to Irish sport.

How would he describe Barnes, if Conlan is the most skilful. “I’d say he’s the wittiest,” he says and smiles.

Then he gets serious as he thinks about his friend’s achievements. “He could be Ireland’s greatest athlete at the moment. He’s special. He will win gold. How can you stay on top of your games for 12 years, fighting the top boys? That doesn’t happen. It’s crazy how far he’s gone and he’s only getting better.”

It’s crazy how far the two of them have gone but they’ll be together in Rio as they were in London, but Conlan is going with greater purpose.

“Listen, four years ago it was all for fun. Now it’s complete seriousness. I’ve got to go and be successful in every single thing I do for my daughter. It gets tough when you do lose - or if you lose - you’re not letting yourself down, you feel like you’re letting her down, you feel like you’re not providing for her as you should. She is what makes me want to be the best. And she is what is going to make me Olympic champion.”