Michael Conlan left amateur boxing in disgust, furious at the shameful judging at the Rio Olympics.
In Madison Square Garden on St Patrick’s Day the freshly minted Top Rank professional took matters out of the hands of those with the scorecards, dismantling his first pro opponent Tim Ibarra before stopping the American in the third round.
Just as he predicted.
.@TheNotoriousMMA walks out with @mickconlan11 and the crowd, well, just watch. #TheConlanRevolution pic.twitter.com/VAIsf7yD4Z
— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) March 18, 2017
“I said before the fight I would do him in the third round. I knew the first two rounds I wasn’t going to go for anything, I was going to take my time and that’s what I did. I would have liked a more clean knockout but it is what it is,” explained Conlan after a fight where he did indeed struggle to find his range in the opening stanzas.
Confidently predicting precisely in which round you are going to win a fight? Who does that remind us of?
Conor McGregor was a member of Conlan’s entourage last night, carrying the tricolour to the ring and standing in the 2012 Olympic medallist’s corner, until he was asked to move.
Diego Brandau, Dustin Poirier and, most famously, Jose Aldo, were all first round stoppages, as McGregor predicted, and it would seem a little of his bravado has rubbed off on Conlan. Even if the Belfast man was a little more cautious in his prediction beforehand.
“People are going to think that I’m going to go in and blow this guy away in 20 seconds,” said Conlan before the fight.
“The guy has had a full training camp and the journeymen in America are different from the [lower-level] ones back home.
“He [Ibarra] has four wins and four losses, he’s not a bum,” said Conlan. “He’s had a full 12-week training camp and he’s going to come fully prepared for his opportunity to be in the limelight and try to beat a prospect that has so much going on about him.”
However, in the end, the 25-year-old did exactly what he said he would do and the boxing world took notice.
A STAR IS BORN @TheGarden ☘️@mickconlan11 looks like REAL DEAL☘️A thrill for me to be part of his ProDebut☘️#LetsGetReadyToRumble @trboxing
— Michael Buffer (@Michael_Buffer) March 18, 2017
Congrats @mickconlan11 on your great win tonight lad the journey has started buzzing for you 👊🏼🇮🇪 enjoy the celebrations
— Jason Quigley (@jay_quigley) March 18, 2017
https://twitter.com/Bernard_Dunne/status/843011465573519363
There was another Irish victory at the Garden last night, with Monaghan welterweight ‘Lethal’ Larry Fryer winning a unanimous decision against Gabriel Solario on the undercard.
