Conlan: I stayed in boxing so my kid could watch daddy as champ

MICK CONLON will become the first Irish fighter to headline both the Belfast SSE Arena and Dublin 3Arena when he fights Jack Bateson on September 5th.

- BY DEREK FOLEY

There was speculation that the 2015 World Amateur champion would throw in the towel following back-to-back losses to Mexican Luis Alberto Lopez and England's Jordan Gill.

That made for three defeats in five fights stretching back to losing a WBA world title fight to Leigh Wood in March 2022 three reverses comprising his first pro losses on the back of 16-fight winning streak since turning pro in 2017.

Indeed Conlon was of a mind to call it a day too until he was overheard by his biggest fan, his biggest believer and his hero.

The Belfast man explained: "It was after after Lopez and after Gill and I'm thinking 'That's enough, that's me done'

"So I said to the missus, 'That's me done, I ain't going to do this no more and she says 'OK, no problem'.

"But my daughter Luisne who is 10 hears me and she says, 'What? No, daddy! You need to be a world champion, you're not retiring."

The first thing was to get back into the ring. Conlon fighting Asad Asif Khan and securing a handy win at the Brighton Centre last March.

He said: "It was 16 months out of the ring, the longest I'd ever been out of a boxing ring but I wasn't worried the first day.