Title fight confirmed for Mick Conlan Homecoming Undercard
Mick Conlan‘s Belfast homecoming fight hasn’t even been officially announced yet but there is already a fight confirmed for the undercard.
The Belfast featherweight has hinted heavily that he will fight in his home city on Saturday June 30th and the British Boxing Board of Control circular released today seems to confirm that.
The board notice has confirmed that Derry super bantamweight Tyrone McCullagh [9(5)-0] will fight Scotland’s Joe Ham [14(5)-0] over ten rounds for the vacant BBBoC Celtic title on that date at the SSE Odyssey Arena in Belfast.
The fight, which will also double as a British title eliminator, has been in play for some time now. Thomas Patrick Ward currently holds the British title and is due to defend the title versus Jazza Dickens this Summer.
‘White Chocolate’ McCullagh has been in camp recently with Derry Mathews in Liverpool preparing for a warm-up date next Saturday versus Nicaraguan journeyman Elvis Guillen at the same venue.
The European bronze medalist, who scored a career-best win last time out over Tom Tran, has the opportunity for comparison, with Ham having outpointed Guillen over four rounds back in 2016.
Ham is due to head out to Los Angeles soon to complete a portion of his camp in Freddie Roach’s Wildcard Gym. The 26-year-old last fought in March, outpointing Edwin Tellez over six rounds in Glasgow – an opponent whom McCullagh stopped in the fourth round back in 2016.
The Glaswegian won his national title last year, outpointing Scott McCormack on a Matchroom bill
The show in two-and-a-half-month’s time will be promoted by Frank Warren – which suggests, although does not confirm, that it will be shown live on the BT Sport and BoxNation platform with whom he is intrinsically linked.
Conlan [6(5)-0] has a clause in his promotional contract with Top Rank which provides him with the Irish television rights for shows which he headlines.
The Olympic bronze medalist has seen his six fights so far shown on BoxNation – with his first two, where he was the official headliner, being aired the following evening on RTÉ2 at no cost to the Irish national broadcaster.
It is unknown what the case will be for the bill in Belfast TV-wise, especially considering Conlan’s management outfit’s boycott of Republic of Ireland media – although Top Rank have stated that they supercede this ban and that Conlan is free to speak to Irish media.
No further undercard bouts have been confirmed as of yet, although Conlan’s elder brother Jamie and the World title-chasing Paddy Barnes both look likely, as does another close friend in cruiserweight contender Tommy McCarthy.