Hundreds of thousands of shares on social media and millions of views have made Michael Conlan boxings hottest free agent?
The Olympics are the pinnacle of amateur boxing and should be the main conveyor belt of talent to the professional ranks. However the number of gold medalists who go on to enjoy large success is lower than you would expect. From the 1996 Atlanta Games to the 2008 Beijing Games, 45 gold medals were handed out with 11 of the gold medals going to boxers who eventually held either the WBC, WBA, IBF or WBO World Championship. That is a surprisingly low number. Given that the gold medalists cannot offer promoters a surefire success they have to look deeper into what makes a successful professional. For promoters, the aim of the game is money. Making as much of it as possible. That is why Michael Conlan is the must-have signing coming out of the Olympics.
As a seeded boxer he had a bye in the first round before clashing with the Armenian, Aram Avagyan in the second round. The attacking Armenian is a twice European bronze medalist and started strongly, managing to land some shots against the Irish boxer. However Conlan was just always a bit too clever with his work and as the crowd chanted ?Michael, Michael, Michael? he was awarded a unanimous decision. Next up was Vladimir Nikitin in the quarter final, a man who beat Conlan on the way to his 2013 World Championship silver medal. Watching the first round it seemed like Conlan was well and truly past the defeat. He boxed the ears off of Nikitin with brilliant counterpunching and a strong work rate. He showed off his brilliant footwork often making Nikitin look like a slow street brawler. Apparently the judges disagreed handing the round unanimously to the Russian. All that did was suggest to Conlan that he needed to box off the front foot to take the decision. So he did. In the second he switched up his tactics and bloodied his opponent with vicious shots. The third contained in a similar vein and it looked like Conlan had won a medal with a brilliant performance showing all aspects of his boxing. Instead the decision was read out and it was a loss for the Irishman. Despite landed ten more punches in the last round and nine more power punches it was still deemed to have gone against him. It was after this that one of the most viewed moments of the Rio Olympics occurred. Conlan tore off his vest and rose his middle fingers up at the judges who he had deemed to have robbed him. Then he went on an explosive rant where he described AIBA as ?fucking cheats? and ?cheating bastards.? He declared the amateur game as ?rotten to the core? and that he would never compete again before completing his tirade by tweeting Putin asking how much they charged him. Hundreds of thousands of shares on social media and millions of views have made Michael Conlan boxing?s hottest free agent.
Michael Conlan gave up some of his leverage with the rant, he cannot return to Olympic style boxing. However the headlines and fanfare generated from his interview has far outweighed that. Every promoter wants to sign Conlan. Connor McGregor has shown the potential for a trash talking Irishman to dominate combat sports. Granted anyone with his speaking ability would make millions of dollars and Conlan probably does not have quite that charisma and charm. Connor did show that Irish fans are willing to travel and can create quite some atmosphere in Ireland. Imagine the scene; Conlan is an undefeated World Champion with an English rival, also a World Champion. Croke Park? An Irish stadium show is a reality. Conlan has the skill that talking in this sense does not seem overly farfetched. He is a beautiful counterpuncher who can hit and move to a devastating effect. His hero growing up was Prince Naseem Hamed and you can see some similarities. He showed his incredible versatility against Nikitin and although it takes time to adapt to professional boxing, Conlan looks like someone one who could do it seamlessly. He did well in the WSB despite three defeats on his record. One was a farcical finish and decision against Kairat Yeraliyev, another a tight bout against Magomed Gurbanov and a few years ago against Andrew Selby who looks like becoming a brilliant professional.
So Conlan has the talent and has already built up some of the interest that most boxers dream of. This makes him the hottest property coming out of the Olympics and the only question is who Conlan signs with. Frank Warren has his brother signed up but that means being stuck on BoxNation?appealing only to the hardcore fans. The biggest promoter in Britain and Ireland is almost definitely Eddie Hearn. He has the Sky Sports contract, numerous world champions and many British Olympic stars from 2012. His final option which will encompass many more options is the American option. Andy Lee and Connor McGregor are the two comparable fighters. When signing with the UFC, McGregor was only known by a group of hardcore fans in a similar way to Conlan. His style, impressive results and charisma built him up at a rapid speed. Andy Lee similarly started his career in America but took a more custom route fighting in smaller arenas before stepping up after 15 bouts. Conlan will surely come somewhere in between the two. Whoever signs boxing?s hottest free agent has themselves a potential star that everyone needs to keep an eye on.
