Michael Conlan’s St Patrick’s Day fight card cancelled
Michael Conlan’s Madison Square Garden Party is cancelled.
The Belfast featherweight was due to fight Belmar Preciado, the top of an ESPN broadcast fight bill on Tuesday, but the show was pulled over night.
Top Rank had initially planned to run two shows in New York over the weekend despite COVID-19 fears. They had planned for a Shakur Stevenson topped Saturday card and a Conlan topped Tuesday fight night to play out behind closed doors.
Things looked that positive in that regard that the final press conference for both fights took place yesterday.
However, within hours of the fighters talking to the media both cards and all the fights on them were cancelled.
Fight is off, gutted to say the least spent alot of time away from my family & spent alot of money on training for this but unfortunately it’s been postponed to hopefully a date very soon! Wishing everyone health at this weird time. What a crazy fucking day 😳🙏🏼 #ConlanRevolution https://t.co/kyQYJoop7o
— Michael Conlan (@mickconlan11) March 13, 2020
Top Rank released the following statement:
“After close consultation with the New York State Athletic Commission, it has been determined that Saturday’s and Tuesday’s events cannot proceed in light of the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
“Top Rank will work with the commission to reschedule the events as soon as it is safe for all involved. The health and safety of the fighters and their teams, and everyone involved in the promotion of these events, necessitated taking this step.
Conlan also commented on the situation stating:
“Unfortunately my fight has been cancelled due to Coronavirus, hopefully it can be rescheduled very soon. Gutted to say the least, few months of training for this to happen.
“Wishing everyone health at this weird time, what a crazy experience this day has been. We will go again!”
It’s also frustrating for the likes of Feargal McCrory, Paddy Donovan and Matthew Tinker, who all had fights scheduled for the St Patricks Day card.
