Michael Conlan looks like he may finally get the opportunity that he so craves, and challenge for a world title in his native Northern Ireland.
According to his brother, Jamie, Conlan’s team have been working hard to secure a shot at a belt and have IBF champion, Luis Alberto Lopez, well and truly in their sights.
‘Mick’ won the bronze medal at London 2012 and won his first sixteen fights as a professional, capturing the hearts of his home nation and becoming a fan-favourite in his home country.
However, last year, Conlan was on the wrong side of the Ring Magazine Knockout and Fight of the Year, where we was brutally stopped in the final round of his fight with Leigh Wood, whilst being ahead on the scorecards.
Since defeat, Conlan has achieved back-to-back victories at the SSE Arena in Belfast, including a first-round knockout victory over former European featherweight champion, Karim Guerfi.
In an interview with Belfast Live, his brother and promoter, Jamie, revealed that they plan to return to the venue to fight Lopez, who recently defeated Josh Warrington for the IBF world title.
“It is just about small things that need to be ironed out. We looked at options including chief support for Lomachenko vs Haney. That stalled so we looked closer to home and checked what available we had with the SSE.
Lopez is where our thoughts are and what our preparations are going into. May 27 has been floated around as the date we are targeting.
He is very, very good. His punch output is high and he hits hard enough to hurt you.
It is a tough fight but one I am very confident Michael will win. The talks have been encouraging so far and everything is moving in the right direction.”