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ROUNDING OFF A nightmare May for Irish boxing, Michael Conlan (18-2, 9 KOs) has been defeated in his second shot at a world title.
The Belfast featherweight was knocked out in the fifth round in his home city by defending IBF champion Luis Alberto Lopez (28-2, 16 KOs).
The Mexican was too strong and did not allow Conlan a moment of respite, hurting the Falls Road man in the third before closing the show at the SSE Arena two rounds later with a sensational uppercut.
A painful night for Conlan and the sport on this island, he could not deal with the sheer physicality and power of the defending champion who tore up the script.
While it was a 50-50 fight with the bookmakers beforehand, the general industry consensus was that, if he could negotiate the early rounds and establish a rhythm, Conlan would have too much class for the champion.
Indeed, there was something of a carnival atmosphere in the Titanic City in contrast to the anxious feeling that surrounded the Katie Taylor v Chantelle Cameron fight last weekend.
Conlan, 31, fought fire with fire and the grizzled Lopez, 29, was the man left standing, sending the World gold and Olympic bronze medallist down and out after five violent rounds.
The Ulsterman had been on the cusp of world title honours 14 months ago in Nottingham only to be short-circuited in the final round by Leigh Wood. A swift but impressive rebuild from this WBA title fight saw Conlan outpoint tough Colombian Miguel Marriaga and blast away Frenchman Karim Guerfi to put him in the frame for a second shot.
A constantly changing landscape at featherweight, the same December night Conlan stopped Guerfi in a round also saw Lopez cause a mild upset by dethroning Josh Warrington in Leeds to claim the IBF crown. With both being promoted by US behemoth Top Rank, an in-house title clash was quickly arranged and, despite being challenger, Conlan’s profile – and ability to sell 10,000 tickets – saw the fight fixed for Belfast and the former Odyssey Arena.
Contrasting to Conlan and his impeccable amateur credentials, Mexicali’s Lopez had fought his way up to the world stage from humble beginnings on the Mexican small hall scene. Forcing his way to a Top Rank deal with upsets over Andy Vences and Gabe Flores Jr, ‘El Venado’ came into tonight off the back of a ten-fight win streak which culminated in the aforementioned title triumph over Warrington. A fast start from the awkward and aggressive Latino that night saw him take control of the bout and, despite slowing in the second half, he had enough banked to claim a majority-decision win over the more established beltholder.
Alas, Lopez’s potential frailties down the stretch would not be a factor here in a fight which, even after one round, did not look like going the distance.
Having entered with his customary ‘Grace’ ringwalk, Conlan had brought the atmosphere to a fever pitch and started surprisingly fast, exchanging shots with Lopez rather than going on the back foot. Both targeted the body early and Conlan slung in a pair of heavy southpaw left hands upstairs but every shot the champion threw appeared to have significant weight behind it.
Lopez, always dangerous with the uppercut, scored well with a leaping hook in the second that sent Conlan into the ropes but the challenger responded well, stopping the Mexican in his tracks with a hard counter shot. Refusing to make it a boxer v puncher affair and maybe looking to show Lopez his own physical strength, Conlan dug in well in the closing exchanges, perhaps getting the better of things but it was a dangerous game he was playing.
A concerted tactic from Conlan, he continued to stab to the body of Lopez in the third but he was forced to come through a period of peril as uppercuts from the champion put him on severely wobbly legs. Retreating to the ropes with a fuzzy head, Conlan bobbed, weaved, held, and managed to see out the round but there were major warning signs.
Fighting hard just to keep his head above water, Conlan withstood an early fourth-round charge from Lopez and began to land some long left hands of his own but a late left hook from the visitor was the punch of the stanza.
Conlan, with his notable height and reach advantage, attempted to stay on the outside in the fifth but, once Lopez closed the distance, it was over. A short right uppercut sent the home favourite down in stages and the towel came in from Adam Booth immediately.
Immediately tended to in the ring with oxygen, Conlan was back on his feet quickly and congratulated his conqueror. Visibly upset following the announcement of the result, he made a swift exit to the bowels of the arena and whether Conlan will look to rebuild and target a third shot at world honours remains to be seen.
Andersonstown’s Anto Cacace (20-1, 7 KOs), fighting in front of a home crowd for the first time in eight years, won in the chief Irish support bout. The mercurial super featherweight unanimously outpointed Poland’s Damian Wrzesinski (26-2-2, 7 KOs) to retain his lightly-regarded IBO World title. Classy sharp right hands proved the difference as Cacace continually caught his forward-marching opponent throughout the 12 rounds.
Pierce O’Leary (12-0, 7 KOs) showed just why he is one of the hottest prospects in Irish boxing with a first round stoppage. ‘Big Bang’ blasted out Valencia-based Romanian Alin Florin Ciorceri (17-4, 7 KOs) in double-quick time, knocking the visitor down inside the opening minute with a left hook and the bout was waved off soon after. The 23-year-old Dublin light welterweight, highly-rated by boxing insiders, retained his WBC International rankings belt and should see his #26 rating with the body rise as he builds under the radar.
Belfast super flyweight prospect Conor Quinn (6-0-1, 4 KOs) was given a tough eight rounds by former EU champion Juan Hinostroza(11-11-2, 5 KOs) but came through on the scorecards to underline his credentials. Then there were also early undercard wins for Tokyo Olympian Kurt Walker (7-0, 1 KO) who cruised past Venezuelan featherweight Maicol Velazco (10-7, 3 KOs) and Conor McGregor-backed Dublin lightweight Willo Hayden (6-0, 1 KO) who outpointed Sunderland’s Jordan Ellison (14-48-3, 1 KO).
Also winners on the night were Liverpudlians Nick Ball (18-0, 11 KOs) and Callum Thompson (7-0, 1 KO) who defeated Ludumo Lamati (21-1-1, 11 KOs) and Marian Marius Istrate (3-17) respectively.
At the time of writing, Belfast super-middleweight Padraig McCrory, Belleek middle Fearghus Quinn, and welterweight debutant Jamesy Freeman from Armagh were yet to take to the ring for their respective fights with Diego Ramirez, Ruben Angulo, and Jordan Grannum.
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I went into AIB one day to ask them for a print out of my statements for the previous 6 months for the Welfare as I was out of work at the time and I didn’t have a printer. I was told that the charge was €3 per page! I can get 500 sheets of paper off Viking Direct for €3.43. She told me that the total amount of pages was 12 so that would have been €36 for 5 minutes work. I declined her offer and got a friend of mine to print them instead for the price of a cup of coffee.
@Ennui Kenny: social welfare office should accept e statements. Saves time, money and the environment
@Ennui Kenny: well that’s exactly the point. They make it so prohibitively expensive that you go elsewhere and learn how to do it yourself. To be honest it makes sense if it’s only a statement your after.
However, the hours they operate are total bollocks. Those are worth complaining about. Bank of Ireland operate at hours (10:30am to 4pm) safely tucked inside everyone else’s working so they have to deal with as few customers face to face as possible and subsequently have to pay tellers as little as possible also. I might add that actual cash services within those few hours are further restricted again to an even more few hours. And they don’t do all this because they can’t find staff to work the hours. They do it because they’re stingy
@Irish Political GIF: Social welfare won’t accept e statements or even in some cases their own online printed forms.
@Eon Cocker: yes but it goes against the bullshit slogan that “we’re here to help our customers” they omitted the text “for a price” from their slogans.
@Eon Cocker: BOI open from 10am actually.. try getting out of bed half an hour earlier.
@Eon Cocker: BofI are shocking, tried to get a statement off them and three times they sent the wrong ones out, shocking that they could not even do a basic thing like print a statement correctly, I’ll never do business with them again.
I went in to my local bank to ask about a business “Start up Loan” they told me I have to be in business about six months and already have a business account. Which is not a start up Loan.
There’s no competition in the market so there’s no motivation to reform.
Doesn’t help that Rabo Bank left the market.
“Revolut” might put some pressure on some of them with regards card fees with their free model.
@Tom: Ask the central bank why they restrict competition and don’t allow Raisin.com to operate in Ireland. Raisin offer the best deposit rates but the Central bank refuse them a licence even though they are licensed by every other central bank in Europe.
@Tom: The online banks; N26, Revolut, Monzo, Fire (the only Irish online-only bank I know of) etc. are all so much better than any Irish bank, despite the fact they all are start-ups with a fraction of the staff and capital. Decent support too with hours outside of 10am – 4pm.
Only time there is a problem with those is when something comes up that you would typically go to a branch for. Lodging money comes to mind (via branch or ATM).
@Shane Corry: I hadn’t heard of those others. Will give them each a go.
I think it is a bit rich of the central bank to say there is not a customer focus. The Central Bank have refused a licence for Raisin.com to operate in Ireland. Raisin.com is a company that allows people to use banks in other countries throughout Europe for deposts. Hence achieving better rates for customers. Ireland is the only country in the EU that Raisin cannot operate.
What I can never understand is why a hell of a lot more bankers are not in prison. They deliberately stole many peoples money by putting them on the wrong interest rates in the tracker mortgage scandal. This is obvious theft. Why are they allowed get away with this ? The establishment looks after its own
@Michael farrelly: Because you live in a highly corrupt country and its that was because we vote for it every election.
Bank of Ireland have no soul
@Irish Political GIF: In short the Central Bank examined all the major banks to see if they’d changed their greedy, self-centered “to hell with the customer” ways, they’d clearly put considerable time and effort into this.
Their conclusion is to tell us what we already know, that, no, they haven’t changed one iota. And their answer to this is to send the report to the various Banks, as a sort of gentle reminder, and recommend legislation to ” facilitate an individual accountability framework”.
Seriously, ffs, what’s the point? If it’s not bad enough telling that the Central Bank has the bare faced cheek to stand in front of the people of this country at this stage and admit that all the major Banks couldn’t give a rat’s anus about any of their collective customers is that not a slight indication of a problem? Is it not a bigger indication of a problem that, having identified all the Banks giving their so-called regulator a collective finger, their is absolutely nothing that can be done about it except a stern letter. Meanwhile this country and it’s people get collectively screwed – again, by the banks, while yet another government stands by and pretends to be outraged.
Simple bank’s are a law onto themselves, the mortgage scandal proved it big time. The CB says it has teeth but it’s bark is worse than its bite. Don’t let the top banker’s draw the recommendations out just make it law ,sign up or leave your job end off.
If you were to believe all the claptrap that come from the marketing departments of these major companies about mission statements and company ethos etc you’d think they were some kind of benevolent overseers only out to serve the interests of their deer customers. The truth is they are all money grabbing slime bags, whose only priorities are to extract maximum profit with minimum outlay. The Irish banks should hang their collective heads in shame at their behaviour over the past 20 years. As for companies like Apple, for all their talk of loving their users, they are getting more closed and cult-like every day, not afraid to stomp all over statutory rights to protect their profits. Company statements are nonsense and should be completely ignored.
@Emachine: “dear” customers
Banks are a law onto themselves, and screw their customers, they simply see them as cows to milk.
My local Branch constantly harass customers to use machines for transactions, and actually process most transactions for the older customers. Who walk out none the wiser. Counter access now down to 9-12, complete joke.
As for tracker issue, amongst many others…..
Intentionally defrauding customers!
Regulators are incompetent and useless !
@Isthatright: sure my local branch doesn’t accept cash… yeup you read that right. If you can’t do it by machine then youve to go to another branch altogether.
@Karen NíDhochartaigh: Close your account and tell them you are moving to another bank because of it, otherwise no point in complaining.
My Local Ulster bank has implemented a forced use of envelopes paying cheques in. No counter service. Made a complaint to ulsterbank and got 25 euro and an apology but the change in attitude of the counter staff since it was brought in is noticeable.
I suppose they only have to be slightly less obnoxious than bank of Ireland to know I won’t move there and account charges are way higher in aib.
Listening to the radio on my way home from work..the report was being discussed..was amazed to discover that a Belgian customer can shop for a mortgage in most of Europe..with20yr fixed rates of 2% readily available..imagine if were all really equal…
GOUGE the customer fist,board room.
Customer first advertised.
What does anyone expect? Banks defraud their tracker customers at will and there are no consequences. Fine Gael disinterested in white collar crime and the devastating consequences on people’s lives. Fact.
Open a smsrt account at the post office…personal service and open 6 days a week
Bank of Ireland have been torturing us for 8 years
OK here are my terms and conditions:
Any bank that causes a communication signal with nauseating adspeak content to be broadcast into my home shall be liable to a fine of €50,000 for each and every offence.
Peer to Peer lending for mortgages and other small to medium loans please, let’s cut out these banks having so much clout over us.
Government should be legislating for innovation, and not protecting their friends.
Any excuse my diatribe, probably talking rubbish as usual.
@Hellenize Dublin: *Anyway
Banks that have softly spoken american sounding patter, backing brave or some such nonsense. Put more tellers on instead
If you want to change something start with the top! For the banks – the top is the major shareholders. Group together and threaten the major shareholders with a boycott or blockades and they won’t be long pushing for action.
You only have watch that very wrong BOI advert with the boy and his teddy bear to realise that the banks want you to keep moving house and for no other reason other than to keep them in profit!! They don’t care that that boy needs roots to grow, form friends and have stability!!!!!
If possible, nobody wants to move, school going kids from house to house or to completely different neighborhoods, which that advert is suggesting is the normal path of life.
have your say