Pain, Panic, and Relief – A Cruel Night in Nottingham for Mick Conlan
It was all going so well.
The coronation of Mick Conlan as Ireland’s newest World champion was just minutes away before, like it so often seems with Irish boxing, the lights went out.
The Belfast featherweight, already an Irish boxing legend before he ever stepped in a pro ring, had put on three-quarters of a masterclass in Nottingham, proving so many people right, before it all went so wrong.
WBA champion Leigh Wood, showing the grit and heart more usually associated with our own national stereotype, hung in and knocked Conlan unconscious in the twelfth and final round. The Falls Road boxer, out standing up, fell through the ropes with brother Jamie and father John rushing from ringside to catch his slumping shell.
A night’s sleep for us and a visit to the hospital for Mick now allows us to delve into what transpired at the Motorpoint but, for a horrible couple of hours, we all had to contend with the aspects of our bloodsport which we like to put to the back of our minds.
Having largely dominated, Conlan began to slow as we approached the championship rounds. Wood had walked through countless left hands but his endless desire and determination paid dividends. Down went Conlan in the eleventh – a slip? Arguably. A shot was landed but the canvas was soiled with water and vaseline.
Trainer Adam Booth protested but it mattered not, the cards had swung and, having been unassailably up with most people, the twelfth was now potentially decisive. Little did we know how decisive.
With Wood invigorated and Conlan visibly tired, it was a madhouse. The Irish fans, so vocal when Conlan sensationally dropped his English foe in the opening round and as he pushed hard, maybe too hard, for the stoppage in the second, had almost been lulled into a false sense of security. The World Amateur champion was just too good. We told you!
CONLAN DROPS WOOD IN THE FIRST!
😱😱🤯🤯#WoodConlan pic.twitter.com/j1Omtnpl3x
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) March 12, 2022
The home crowd, having willed their man on when it seemed there was no hope, rose the volume once again as the prospect of an almost unimaginable turnaround came into play and then it happened.
Zap.
Conlan was out – of his senses and the ring. Pandemonium, and not the good kind. For a second there is sporting confusion. What happened? A knockdown, yes, how bad is it? ‘He was out, gone’ shouts a ringside reporter as we all furiously type and look up and down from our laptops. Will he get back in the ring? No. Steve Gray waves it off and Booth runs across with the concern usually reserved for a parent that has heard their child let out a blood-curdling scream, or worse.
The controversial Ben Davison is on the floor embracing Wood like a sweaty slug but something is wrong. On the opposite side to where the fall happens, the press row cannot see what is happening but the worst is being feared. Leigh Wood looks close to vomiting. The stretcher is in. Minutes pass and, with urgency in his voice, the usually happy-go-lucky MC David Diamanté calls for the crowd to part to allow Conlan and the paramedics through. Oh God.
#ConlanWood I hope Michael Conlan is OK! pic.twitter.com/d7NXYS4GcQ
— Irish Virus (@the_irishpsycho) March 12, 2022
There are no cameras, no footage detailing what is going on, obviously. Blurry replays, video recorded on viewers’s phones are circulating on Twitter showing Conlan being knocked out and going completely upside-down as he falls, his head dropping a good 10 feet. Before and after this period people have rightly called this a modern classic but, in the moment, concern is the only feeling.
Then we have the horrible period of rumour and speculation. ‘He wasn’t hit clean’, ‘it was exhaustion’, ‘pray for Mick’. Real updates come, first from Matchroom CEO Frank Smith stating that Conlan is “conscious” and “stable” at the hospital. Encouraging in a way but more a description of someone that has been pulled from the wreckage of a car crash. Is Mick okay?
The TV replays aren’t particularly clear. What the hell happened? Then the fan footage comes through, most notably through Pat McCormack, the alleged ’spy’ in the Leigh Wood camp. It was a shot to the temple which a tired Conlan didn’t see coming. It really is the cruellest of sports.
Defo a straight right hand. At first glance it looked like he fainted. Absolute master class from Mick. Think that Taylor score card is gonna make fighters stand toe to toe even when they don’t need to! Slip in the 11th too. Gutted for Conlan what a fighter. pic.twitter.com/AZL4o8LvpO
— Desy McClean (@Desyboi) March 13, 2022
Outside the arena there are hundreds of Irish fans milling around in a trance. Defeat from the jaws of victory but no-one ‘cares’ about the result. Mercifully, the knots in our stomachs loosen throughout the night, first as John Conlan texts Irish boxing writer Dave Mohan informing him that everything is okay, scans are clear, and the fall rather than the KO was the immediate worry.
Then Mick himself. 2:24am. He’s good. Time to sleep, the processing comes today.
🙏 @mickconlan11 #WoodConlan pic.twitter.com/zQsCBK0dxb
— Matchroom Boxing (@MatchroomBoxing) March 13, 2022
The Crowne Plaza Hotel. Conlan is fronting up, meeting with Wood, doing interviews, he wants the rematch and why shouldn’t he? If the knockdown in the first came a few seconds earlier would Wood have survived a follow-up? If Conlan had been slightly more precise in the second? If the canvas was a bit drier? If, if, if.
Féile be gone, the talk now is the City Ground but Wood holds the cards now. A rematch of an epic fight will always be there for him in the back pocket while he goes for more ‘life-changing’ bouts. There’s Santa Cruz with the ‘Super’ belt… argh who gives a shit at this stage. We must lick our wounds as Irish boxing’s last remaining male star goes on the rebuild in a sport that doesn’t make sense.
Everything is extremely raw and it stings to think but Conlan, 31 later this year, has a mountain to climb. He has the talent, of course, we saw that in the first half of the fight especially but this filthy fight game never seems to go to plan. He’s given us so much, it’s not fair. Boxing is never fair.
When your football team loses there’s always next year. That isn’t the case in our sport. Irish boxing is a cockroach, it will go on, but the worry is that we must now scuttle even further underground. Thankfully Mick is healthy. The sport, though, is far from it.
