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Mick Conlan has made strides in the last year, as he’s honing craft with trainer Adam Booth, and those in the tri-state area will soon get a chance to see how much better he’s gotten.
On March 17, the 27-year-old hitter, who holds a 10-0 (6 KO) mark, is fighting pretty seasoned boxers, like 24-3-2 Ruben Garcia Hernandez in NYC.
I put it to him when he came on the Everlast “Talkbox” podcast. Is he a prospect or a contender?
“I’m on the edge. Next St. Patrick’s Day, I want to be fighting for a world title.”
See Conlan in footage from his eighth pro bout below:
Conlan, who made mad buzz when he flipped the bird at crap judges at the 2016 Olympics, will be headlining at the MSG Theater on the St. Paddy’s Day Top Rank card.
“This will be my third year running,” he said, as we chuckled over how these St. Paddy’s Day cards back in the day could feature more bouts in the stands than in the ring.
The hitter now trains out of London, with Adam Booth, and he seeks to improve every day, “even if it’s a half a percent.”
Conlan has been getting seasoning of a different sort, in that he’s been traveling here and there to glove up. NY, Belfast, England, he’s needing to adapt to each place, while he builds up a fan base at different map points.
The scrapper says he will be fighting in Ireland, in a 15,000 seat venue, and probably against the guy he battled in the Olympics, the Russian Vladimir Nikitin.
The featherweight division, he continued, is pretty stacked. He thinks next year he’d be ready for any beltholder there, and then I put him on the spot: if he were to faced with the opportunity to meet any current titist, which one would he really love his chances against? He paused.
Josh Warrington, he said.
”He would be the one, I think I would beat him right now, I’d be very confident of that. I’m not talkin’ any shit,” he made sure to mention, just noting that he’s confident in his ability.
Back to the near future. Conlan said tix start at $32 for this Theatre gig. He promised that the atmosphere will be “rowdy” and it’ll make his hair stand up on end to hear the hubbub there.
And how bout this: there’s a decent chance you might be able to track down Conlan post-fight, and maybe hoist a brew in his honor. His social is @MickConlan11, and you can track that VIP treatment there. His closing comment: “Get there and we’ll have some drinks there if ya want!”