Danny Vaughan: In 20 years I’ve not seen heart and balls like Conlan’s

Last Saturday Jamie Conlan won a whole new army of fight fans as well as the WBO Intercontinental title after a ‘Fight of the Year’ contender victory over Mexican Junior Granados in Dublin.

It wasn’t just the fans however who were impressed with the manner in which the Belfast super flyweight got up off the deck twice in the seventh round to go on to victory – his new trainer Danny Vaughan has saluted the manner in which his charge fought on to claim the win.

Conlan showed monumental heart, guts and desire to claim his 14th career win and Vaughan thinks that after what he showed at the National Stadium in front of the Boxnation cameras, Conlan has proved he has the balls to be a world champion.

Speaking to James Helder from IFL TV Vaughan said “I’ve worked with kids for twenty odd years now and I’ve never seen balls like that in my life. He was down and out, he was gone but he got up at 9, got back out and got back in the fight. In the corner I told him you’ve gotta give me what you’ve got, you’ve got to show this crowd how much heart you’ve got and he done it. To get up and do what he did – he deserves to fight for a world title.”

Vaughan wont be rushing Conlan into a world title fight just yet however and thinks that the Belfast man is just two or three fights from realising his ambitions.

“He is a couple of fights away from a world title. He needs a little break and we will get back to the drawing board but he’s got heart, he can punch and he showed a little of everything he has got in that fight. In a coupe of fights he will be ready for anyone.”

Liverpool native Vaughan, who has been training Conlan for over eight months since he moved to MGM, also singled out the Irish fight fans for praise after they upped the volume while Conlan was struggling during the fight.

“They were the third man. In the seventh round they carried him through and when he got up it was like a Rocky film. I’ve never seen the like of it It was unbelievable!  It’s one of the best fights I’ve seen. I’d have rather been sitting in the seats watching it because I’ve lost about three stone sweating” he said