Mexican Style – Mick Conlan delighted with clean KO as pro career starts to “click”
Now at a more comfortable weight, Mick Conlan is starting to feel his power – and so are his opponents.
During the summer the Belfast boxer abandoned plans of targeting titles at super bantamweight and began shifting his focus four pounds north and the 126lbs featherweight division.
In his first real fully fledged featherweight fight on Friday, Conlan would score his fourth consecutive stoppage but his first highlight reel knockout.
The 25 year old left previously unbeaten Montana fighter Kenny Guzman sprawled out following an overhand right in the closing seconds of the second round of their bout on the big Top Rank card in Tucson, Arizona.
While Tim Ibarra, Alfredo Chanez, and Jarrett Owen all came with varying forms of negative approaches, Guzman gave it a go – and a bigger and badder Conlan really made him pay.
Reflecting on the knockout, Conlan told Irish-Boxing.com that it was “really satisfying.”
“I’ve been looking for that clean one punch KO, and I knew it was there it was just a matter of time before I had an opponent who would actually come to fight for me to be able to land one of those shots.”
“I felt the move up [to featherweight] has helped me develop more power i was able to focus more on my strength and conditioning this camp.”
Conlan had promised a statement performance beforehand, and went into the bout on the Oscar Valdez and Gilberto Ramirez doubleheader card with all guns blazing.
This approach entailed that he shipped his first real pro punches, a few clipping shots, but the Falls Road man is aware of the need to entertain in the pro game – taking a leaf out of his older brother Jamie ‘The Mexican’ Conlan’s book.
Conlan explained how “I know I need to be taking these guys out so I just went in and let rip this time, I knew after one or two shots he had nothing to bother me so I was happy to try entertain a war hungry Mexican crowd.”
The 2015 World Amateur gold medalist was notably critical of his opening few performances, but strikes a more positive note now ahead of his fifth pro fight in New York on December 9th.
Conlan reasoned that “I feel each performance has been an improvement into the pro game, I’ve done what’s been asked and expected of me and taking out the guys who have been put in front of me.”
“I feel I’ve still a lot to work overall and it takes time but I feel things are all starting to click now.”
Joe O'Neill
