Olympic bronze medallist and world honours hopeful Michael Conlan suffered a serious setback when dealt with consecutive stoppage defeats. However, the Irishman is not prepared to walk away from the sport just yet and has instead opted for a trainer switch as he continues his world title pursuit.
Conlan has built up a name for himself as the man to get behind within the proud boxing nation of Northern Ireland in recent years, turning Olympic heartbreak and controversy into a well-documented desire to claim a world title and selling out numerous events in his home nation in the process.
In 2022, ‘Mick’ was seconds away from the WBA (Regular) crown, before being knocked out by Leigh Wood in the final round of the 2022 Fight of the Year in Nottingham whilst comfortably ahead on the cards – with Wood later being upgraded to full champion, to rub further salt into the wounds.
However, Conlan got a second chance when he got his dream world title fight at the SSE Arena in Belfast, only for that dream to turn to a nightmare. He was stopped by IBF featherweight champion Luis Alberto Lopez on home soil in a damning defeat, before Jordan Gill did the same to Conlan at the same venue six months later, in a shock defeat up at super-featherweight.
That loss to Gill led to fans calling for Conlan to hang up the gloves and walk away from the sport as one of the greatest featherweights to never win a world title. Yet in an interview with Boxing Social, the 32-year-old fan-favourite confirmed that he will indeed return to the ring and that he will do so with a new trainer in his corner, confirming that he has left Pedro Diaz.
“I was looking at a few coaches; Stephen Smith, Grant Smith and Buddy McGirt, and I narrowed it down to Stephen or Grant. I appreciate the time that I have had with all of the guys that I have worked with, it has been great, but I believe that Grant’s next step for me is the right one to help me with my career and that he is the right coach for me, at the right time.
“I just like how he operates and how he is as a coach, and I like how the other guys operate as well. It was a very, very hard decision if I am going to be honest and I took time before making any decisions. I first saw him in July and then again in August and then I only came to my decision within the last week and reached out to both Stephen and Grant and let them know which way I was going. Both were sound with it, so I was happy enough.”
Conlan will link up with Grant Smith at the in-form Steel City Gym in Sheffield, home to the likes of Dalton Smith (son of Grant), Sunny Edwards, Chantelle Cameron, and went on to admit that the impressive talent pool that he will be working alongside played a significant factor in his decision to appoint Smith.
“I think that [surrounding myself with talent at the Steel City Gym] was probably a part of the reason that I decided to go to Grant, because of the quality fighters that he has around him. Stephen only has a few fighters, with Charlie Edwards being the main one.
“The last coach that I was with, coach Pedro [Diaz], in my opinion was one of the best coaches that I have ever worked with. I am very grateful to have been under him for a while but I was basically training by myself for a lot of the time. It was alright whilst you were doing it, but in hindsight it wasn’t what I needed, because you don’t know how hard you are pushing yourself, you need to be able to gauge that off of other people.
“That is why I have chosen Grant, because he has so much high-quality fighters there who you can bounce off of and push yourself against in the gym and try to excel. That was a part of the reason, I liked the trainer and the quality of fighters that I will be around, now I can see how they are operating and which way they are doing things.”
The 2015 World Amateur Champion will have plenty of time to adjust to life under Smith before his next contest, later detailing that this will go ahead no earlier than St. Patrick’s Day 2025 (March 17th) and that the bout will take place back down in the featherweight division.
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