Jamie Conlan secures WBO World title final eliminator

Jamie Conlan [17(11)-0] has been handed a boost ahead of his Belfast ‘Homecoming’ headline appearance on November 5th.

The Belfast super flyweight tops the bill at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in a fortnight’s time, and will go into the bout with a still to-be-confirmed opponent knowing that there is a WBO World title final eliminator waiting for him should he prevail.

The crowd-pleasing fighter’s promoter Frank Warren has spent the last week in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the 29th Annual WBO Convention. While there he negotiated a World title final eliminator for the 30 year old, along with his South African promotional stablemate Zolani Tete.

The current champion with the WBO is Naoya ‘The Monster’ Inoue [11(9)-0], although the formidable Japanese puncher seems to be chasing a unification fight with the likes of Roman Gonzalez before moving up in weight.

Conlan is currently ranked #3 with the organisation, while Mexico’s Juan Hernandez 33(24)-2(1)], a former WBC minimumweight World title challenger is ranked at #1. However, in the last month, Hong Kong’s Rex Tso [20(12)-0] has jumped from fourth to second spot in the ladder. The Asian southpaw is promoted by Top Rank Promotions, who promote Conlan’s brother, and MGM managerial stablemate, Mick. It would not be beyond the realms of possibility that we could see Conlan fight in a World title eliminator on his brothers massive debut undercard at Madison Square Garden Theater on Friday March 17th.

The October WBO Rankings are as follows (September’s rankings in brackets)
C: Naoya Inoue (C)
1. Juan Hernandez (1)
2. Rex Tso (4)
3. Jamie Conlan (3)
4. Sho Ishida (5)
5. Oleydong Sithsamerchai (6)
6. Ricardo Rodriguez (7)
7. Yoan Boyeaux (8)
8. David Carmona (9)
9. Carlos Cuadras (10)
10. Felipe Orucuta (NE)
11. Suguru Muranaka (12)
12. Jose Martinez (13)
13. Teiru Kinoshita (14)
14. Rakniran Muadransarakam (15)
15. Miguel Gonzalez (NE)

Photo Credit: Ricardo Guglielminotti – The Fighting Irish (@ThefIrish)