The Michael Conlan Rio Olympics campaign got underway in good fashion today in Brazil and boosted the Irish team’s morale significantly.
The 2015 World amateur champion showed just why so many are tipping him for big things at this year’s games and also in the pro ranks when he does turnover.
Irish boxing has taken a bit of a hit to it’s momentum as of late for various reasons, but Michael Conlan injected some palpable buzz back into the heart of the Irish boxing team today.
The 24 year old from Belfast squared off with Aram Avagyan of Armenia in the men’s bantamweight (56kg) division and got off to a positive start.
Conlan behind a solid jab, landed some nice right hands in the first round – with his movement and footwork proving to be too sharp for his Armenian opponent.
When Avagyan did throw, he was met by a tight defence from Conlan who was also utilising impressive head movement to evade his attacks.
Avagyan marched forward in the second round and despite landing a couple of single punches, Conlan was just too quick and stong for him.
Conlan won the third round comfortably and landed a beautiful right hand in the first half of the round in particular, rocking the head back of the tough Armenian.
The scorecards read out unanimously in favour of the winner Michael Conlan 3-0 (30-27) to kick off his Olympic boxing campaign in style.
He’s one to keep an eye this year for sure and indeed after the Olympics – as he told us at Boxing News and Views last year he aims to become a professional world champion by 2018.
For those who may not have seen his gold medal winning performance in Doha last year to become world amateur bantamweight champion, here’s how he did it:
(Credit: Universal Sports Network YouTube):
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