“Confused” Conor Quinn looks to put debatable draw behind him

Conor Quinn [2(2)-0-1] is struggling to dilute the pain with positivity.

The young talent is still hurting after being denied a victory he felt he thoroughly deserved in Belfast on Saturday night.

In fact, the MHD prospect is suffering to the extent he finds it hard to accentuate the many positives from the TV fight.

The 24-year-old put a turbulent time behind to fight for the first time in just under three years, did so live on terrestrial tv, and put in a good performance against a very dangerous late replacement.

As a result, he’s traded leather, re-introduced himself to the Irish fight fans as well introducing himself to potentially hundreds of thousands of casuals, all while proving he is already next step ready.

However, at this moment in time, the flyweight can’t look past the fact he drew.

“I’m feeling better than I was a few days ago, however, I’m still very disappointed in the result,” he tells Irish-boxing.com.

“I think I always will be as I felt I had won it pretty comfortably so for someone to take that away from me it’s not a great feeling.”

Quinn took a risk and returned and took on Darwin ‘El Finito’ Martinez, a PanAmerican Youth silver winner who also took gold at the Central American Elite Championships and who came to the ring with six knockouts from seven pro wins.

Martinez did make sure it wasn’t a routine dusting off of the cobwebs and did ask questions of the Belfast wee man – but they were questions he appeared to have the answer for.

Most scored the first three rounds in favour of Quinn and had the last stanza up for debate, but the fight was scored 39-39 by the only man whose card matters, referee Eamonn Magill, much to the bemusement of Quinn.

“I’d say confused more than anything,” he reflects commenting on how he felt at the time. “If you watch it back and look when the decision is being called out, I just stood there for a few minutes waiting for them to say they had called it out wrong and I had won the fight because I genuinely couldn’t believe the ref had scored it a draw.

“I felt that I stuck to the plan the whole fight and I thought I had won the first three rounds as comfortable as you can in that type of fight. My corner felt that way also, which is why in the last round when he decided to it take up a gear I did a bit of dancing. I wasn’t worried because I thought I was going to get my hand raised shortly after.”

When pushed on whether or not anything good came out of the fight, Quinn did finally find some reason to be positive, albeit reluctantly.

“I suppose the positives for me is just that I was back where I belong, in the ring competing again. It felt great to be in there and the support I had was unbelievable, even more so after the fight as people had felt it was a bit of a disgrace of a decision,” he adds before affording himself some credit for taking a banana skin and a half at less than a week’s notice and after such a long lay off.

“I think I definitely do deserve a bit of credit for taking the fight on. That guy was a pan-American silver medalist as an amateur and had six KOs from seven wins. So definitely a tough fight for my first fight in nearly three years. A fight of that standard against a good level guy shows some of what I can do but at the end of the day it’s only 4 rounds and my first four rounds in a very long time so I can assure you know I have many more levels to offer.”

He hopes to show more of what he is about in Belfast on November 26 on a card topped by a Colm Murphy and Liam Gaynor BUI Celtic title fight.

“I’m hoping to get back out now in November and just keep the momentum going from then. I had unbelievable support there on Saturday night and I’m sure there will be even more this time and I can’t wait to put on a show for them.”