Mick Conlan ready to give “best performance yet” in Arizona as pro apprenticeship continues

Mick Conlan [3(3)-0] has pro fight number four this Friday night.

The Belfast featherweight opens the show on a massive Top Rank card at the Tucson Convention Centre in Arizona, live on ESPN.

Conlan fights Kenny Guzman on the world title double-header, with stablemate at The Rock Gym Oscar Valdez defending his WBO featherweight title versus Genesis Servania, and WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez defending his brown belt against Jessie Hart.

The fight will be Conlan’s first since his prominent appearance on the Pacquiao-Horn undercard in Brisbane in July – after which he returned to Belfast for a spell before heading back to camp in California.

Before this the Ulsterman had two headline appearances in New York and Chicago. While still obviously a massive card and platform, Friday is perhaps his most ‘under-the-radar’ fight to date – but Conlan believes he will put on a performance that grabs attention.

The 25 year old is feeling good ahead of his fourth successive six-rounder and, while speaking on the OFT podcast, said that “I’m ready to rock. The camp’s been tough, but it’s been good.”

“It’s a camp where I felt I’ve learned an awful lot. And I feel this is going to be my best performance yet.”

“On Kenny Guzman himself, I’ve only seen like a 40-second clip of him, so I don’t really know much about him. I know he’s undefeated. I know he’s going to come to win.”

“I don’t care. I honestly don’t care what he plans to do, or what he wants to do, or what his record is. I’m going in there to do my job, and as you say: I’m not getting paid for overtime, so I’ll always aim for the KO.”

Conlan feels capable of progressing through the rounds – but, considering his powerful promotional backing, he is understandably in no rush.

“I could easily do the 10-round fight now, if I wanted to,” he noted.

“But, you know, it’s all about progression and taking your time in this game. There’s no rush. I’m young. And I’ve got time on my side.”

“And with Top Rank as well – who know how to progress fighters at the right pace, at the right time – I just listen to them, and just listen to my team, and I’ll let them do all the hard work.”

Should Conlan, as expected, come through on Friday night, focus will turn to his slot on the Vasyl Lomachenko undercard at The Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday December 9th.

Following his debut sell-out appearance at the same venue in March, Conlan feels he is a natural choice for the card “because they know I’m going to sell tickets.”

“They know people want to come and watch. So, they want to get people in early. They want to get people in early to get the tickets, to get them buying their tickets, and to make sure it sells out.”

Conlan’s fight on Friday night will be shown live on BoxNation, with coverage starting at 2:00am.

Listen to Mick Conlan on Obviously Fight Talk in full below: