December 3, 2023
Source: Boxing Scene
Photo Source: Boxing Scene
Promoter Eddie Hearn believes Irish Olympian Michael Conlan will have a very difficult time in bouncing back from Saturday's stoppage loss at the hands of Jordan Gill.
Earlier this year, Conlan suffered a knockout loss at the hands of IBF featherweight champion Luis Alberto Lopez.
After that loss, Conlan changed his trainer, he moved up to super featherweight, and he was matched against what many felt was a 'safe opponent' in Gill, who has been inactive since getting knocked out last year by Kiko Martinez.
Gill dropped Conlan hard in the second round and rocked him several times through the fight. The end came in the seventh, when Gill once again had Conlan in serious trouble and was battering him with punches against the ropes.
“It’s a fighter’s decision but it’s very difficult to come back from that because this is a guy that wants to challenge for world titles,” Hearn told Irish-boxing.com. “He’s lost for world titles, which is always fair enough but now to get beaten again it will be very difficult to come back.”
“You look at the move to 130 and maybe you can say ‘maybe my defeats were weight related’ but then he got stopped by Jordan Gill, who isn’t an elite 130 yet. I think he’ll reflect on that and probably think about his future.”
While some Conlan supporters complained of a premature stoppage, Hearn explains that Conlan's brother was getting prepared to throw in the towel to stop the fight.
“Just before the stoppage, Jamie Conlan stood up and looked at the corner as if to say let’s get the towel ready to go. I saw a bit on social media ‘the stoppage was too early’, but I don’t think so. There were no complaints from the corner or the Conlan team, as a fighter Mick would probably want to go out on the floor rather than his feet, but I think it was the right decision,” he adds before raising questions about Conlan’s punch resistance," Hearn said.
“I said in the build up it’s kind of like who has what left. I think you saw a faded Mick Conlan against a very good Jordan Gill who up at 130-pounds looked like a completely different fighter. Michael got caught early and didn’t recover but started to come back into the fight. Still, you always felt like he was capable of getting hurt at any moment.”
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