Jamie Conlan took on Yader Cardoza of Nicaragua tonight in the main event in Belfast. The renowned warrior used more of his boxing skills for a change tonight, but also displayed his trademark heart to get off the floor.
After getting clipped a couple of times in the 1st round Jamie Conlan began settling down into his work in the second.
He started to use the straight right hand to good effect. He worked his way into the fight and set up the right hand with some well placed jabs to his opponent’s chest.
Conlan looked to be timing Cardoza better in the third. He landed the right consistently again.
The Belfast native appeared to be trying to set the man from Nicaragua up with the big overhand right. He also landed some nice right hands down stairs to the body.
Conlan had some success with the left hook in the fourth but got caught a couple of times by Cardoza. He appeared to switch off in some parts of the round.
A competitive three minutes with the edge possibly going to Cardoza.
Round 5 was another entertaining round. Jamie Conlan knew he was in a fight by this point. The Irishman landed some nice left hooks and screw shots but remained weary of Cardoza, who worked the Conlan body well.
While Cardoza was the man on the front foot in the sixth, Conlan countered him well off the back foot. Particularly his overhand right – over what seemed to be a bit of a lazy left jab from Cardoza.
Cardoza came back well in the 7th round however, edging it for me on work rate.
The Jamie Conlan counter right hand worked well again at the beginning of the 8th. However a short uppercut on the inside by Cardoza turned the fight on it’s head.
It’s stiffened the legs of Conlan who ended up on the floor around 30 seconds later. He survived the end of the round.
Like he had done before in the past, he got back up to his feet and had a solid recovery round in the 9th. Back to his boxing with a clear head. Tactical from Conlan after been dropped heavily the round before.
Cardoza responded in the 10th with a busy round.
Jamie Conlan dug in deep in the 11th round with multiple cuts on his face in a bloody war. Tough round to score.
The Irishman closed out the 12th and final round strongly, in what was an excellent fight overall. I thought Conlan’s boxing just edged the fight despite suffering the knockdown.
The final judges’ scorecards read out a split decision victory for Conlan in the end as he improved his record to 19-0 (11KO) after a tough night’s work.
