“Amateur hour is over on Friday night,” claimed Top Rank’s Carl Moretti, in a fitting statement at the final pre-fight press conference ahead of Michael Conlan’s professional debut at Madison Square Garden’s Theater.
The world amateur bantamweight champion will make his much-anticipated leap into the paid ranks on St Patrick’s night, taking on American Tim Ibarra, with a sell-out crowd of 5,000 expected to be present despite the heavy snow that has fallen on a cold New York City.
Like the contrast in weather between the US east coast in spring and a South American summer, much has changed in the seven months since the Conlan’s dreams of Olympic gold melted away in Rio last August, with the Belfast native now just two days away from throwing his first punch in anger since that contentious defeat to Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin.
“There’s been a lot of hype about my debut but I’m going to make them all believe the hype"
“This feels like it’s been a long time coming and I’m looking forward to putting on a performance,” said Conlan at today’s press conference. “There’s been a lot of hype about my debut but I’m going to make them all believe the hype.
“I’m ready to become a three-weight world champion. I truly believe I’ll become Ireland’s greatest ever fighter, and it starts on Friday night when I knock out Tim Ibarra,” added the confident 25-year-old.
The now-infamous four-letter rant that followed Conlan’s elimination from the Rio Olympics continues to be a talking point among an American boxing media and fight fraternity that has generally viewed amateur boxing with a suspicious pessimism for some time.
Press conference ✅
— Michael Conlan (@mickconlan11) March 15, 2017
The time is almost here, 48hrs #TickTock #March17th #StPaddyDay pic.twitter.com/ruLM8kFgpX
Combined with his talents, the 25-year-old’s one-fingered ring salute to the judges last August garnered so much attention that it essentially acted as an extra selling point for Bob Arum’s Top Rank to sign Conlan on a big money deal.
Should any perspective be needed as regards the US promotional giants’ backing of Conlan, you only need to look at Friday’s undercard. Robson Conceicao, a lightweight gold medallist at his home Olympics last summer, is relegated to fighting in a support bout below the Belfast native.
And Arum, in particular, was keen to use the Rio Olympics as a punchline for a number of amusing comments in support of his star signing, taking aim at Russia and the International Boxing Association (AIBA).
"It is really fitting that Mick fights on St Patrick’s Day because he ran the snakes out of AIBA"
“When the Olympics ended we made an effort to go get the best fighters, whether they won medals or not, or if they were cheated out of getting medals as a number of fighters were,” said the Hall of Fame promoter.
"Allegations were made of Russian conspiracy, although I thought the Russians were too busy hacking into our election.
“Before the Olympics, frankly I hadn’t heard very much of [Conlan],” admitted Arum. “We all know what happened - a young man who wanted to win a gold medal was cheated out of it.
“We decided his pro debut would be St Patrick’s Day… It commemorates St Patrick running the snakes out of Ireland, so it is really fitting that Mick fights on St Patrick’s Day because he ran the snakes out of AIBA.
“About 20 of their [judges] were fired and a lot of their executives got canned.”
A famously vocal promoter, Arum is now in his 50th year of promoting having helped the likes of ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather start out on the road to fame and fortune.
And the 85-year-old believes Conlan is ready to take his first steps on a similar path.
“One thing about the sport of boxing is it regenerates itself,” said Arum. “This event that we’re privileged to hold on St Patrick’s night will feature many of the young fighters who will come to prominence in the years ahead.
“Everyone has commented on how unusual it is for a young man to fight in his paid debut in a place as legendary as Madison Square Garden… Mick Conlan can do so much for the sport of boxing, but he has to prove it in the ring.”
Standing in Conlan’s way will be Colorado native Ibarra, a 4-4 novice journeyman, who insists he is not willing to play the part of a ceremonial punchbag during the six-round bout that will be contested at 124lbs.
That is despite the fact that the 26-year-old is widely considered to be a sacrificial lamb for his opponent’s big night.
“It’s a really epic place to fight,” said Ibarra. “We’re coming not to let Conlan have an easy pro debut - I want to show him the pros ain’t the amateurs.”
However, Conlan’s manager Matthew Macklin insisted his charge is more than ready for the realities of the pro game, having trained alongside and sparred the likes of world champions Oscar Valdez and Jessie Magdaleno at trainer Manny Robles’ California Gym.
“I’ve watched Mick in sparring and you would not believe that this guy is preparing for his pro debut,” said Macklin. “You’d think he was a fringe contender or ready to challenge for a world title.”
Amateur hour is nearly over.
