Tag: Madison Square Garden

It’s not an Olympic medal but Michael Conlan will take it.

Three years ago, at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the Irishman was eliminated by Vladimir Nikitin of Russia in the quarterfinals by a decision that didn’t reflect what happened in the ring. The Irishman famously let the judges know how he felt by showing them his middle finger.

This evening, on the Terence Crawford-Egidijus Kavaliauskas card, Conlan got the only redemption available to him.

Conlan dominated Nikitin in almost every conceivable way in a 10-round featherweight bout, outboxing him, outslugging him and ultimately outpointing him by a wide margin in front of his adopted fans at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

This time the scores were spot on: 98-92, 99-91 and 100-90, all for Conlan.

“I always said I had no ill feelings toward Vladimir, nothing personal. I just had to get that one back,” Conlan said in the ring afterward.

Conlan (13-0, 7 KOs) controlled the fight from the opening bell. In the early rounds, he was content to keep his distance from the aggressive Nikitin and outbox him, jabbing, pounding his body with consistency, landing shots to the head and moving when trouble approached.

Then, in the second half of the contest, Conlan decided to fight Nikitin’s fight by standing toe to toe with him at times. However, even then, even though he stepped bravely into a danger zone, he still got the better of the exchanges.

The only thing Conlan couldn’t do was knock out Nikitin (3-1, 0 KOs), although his body work and hard shots to the head late in the fight certainly got his opponent’s attention.

Conlan seemed to enjoy the inside exchanges, which pumped life into what became an entertaining fight, but he said afterward that it probably wasn’t a good idea when he could’ve cruised to victory from the outside.

“You could see, when I wanted to trade, I could do it better than him,” he said, “but this game is about longevity.”

Conlan didn’t want to discuss his future after the fight, saying his immediate goal is to enjoy his Christmas dinner. He did say that he expects to fight for a world title within a year, which is another dream of his.

He can focus 100 percent on that now. The Olympic thing has been settled.

Michael Conlan, a promising young featherweight, is still known more for what he did than what he is expected to do. Two upraised fingers, one on each upraised hand, were his way of saying goodbye to the amateurs three years ago at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

It was profane. Popular, too.

Conlan expressed what many have thought about Olympic boxing and the lousy decisions that have left a stench ever since the Roy Jones Jr. heist at the 1988 Seoul Games.

Conlan’s gesture said it all then.

He intends to say some more Saturday night.

But this time he promises his only gesture will be a beating of Russian Vladimir Nikitin on the Terence Crawford-Egidijus Kavaliauskas undercard at New York’s Madison Square Garden on ESPN+.

“A demolition job,’’ Conlan said at a media workout Tuesday.

A demolition of the past, perhaps, with what Conlan hopes is a comprehensive beating that will leave little doubt about how bad the judging was in Rio.

“I want to right the wrong of what happened in Rio,” he said.

Nikitin, badly bloodied, got a decision that kept Conlan, a 2012 bronze medalist, from moving on to a chance at the gold medal he had always wanted. Nikitin withdrew from his next bout, which would have been against eventual silver-medalist Shakur Stevenson. The Russian Federation said Nikitin suffered unspecified injuries against Conlan. Nikitin wound up with a bronze medal anyway.

Meanwhile, Conlan left Rio without a medal, yet with rock-and-roll-like notoriety. He also gained a reputation for defiance, always a good thing to have in the pro ranks.

He even tweeted to Russian President Vladimir Putin, asking him how much it cost to pay off the judges. No word on whether Putin saw the tweet. He might have been too busy reading Donald Trump’s twitter account

Anyway, Conway went home to Belfast beloved. At a corner in his Catholic neighborhood, there’s a mural of him, spread across one wall. He was celebrated for his honesty in Rio. Yet there was always a lingering desire to finish the story. Now he has the chance to deliver the final punctuation point and move on.

“This fight is a long time coming,’’ Conlan (12-0, 7 KOs) said. ‘We were supposed to fight in August, but Vladimir got injured. I’m excited. We’re ready to rock, and the fans in New York can expect a big performance.

“Listen, regardless of what I think about the (amateur) judges, I have never officially beaten him. I need to go out there and get my hand raised.’’

Conlan also said he bears no personal animus for Nikitin, who resides in Oxnard, Calif. At 29, Nikitin, is getting a late start in the pros. He’s 3-0, all by decision and all three in the U.S.

“We fought twice, and I won both times,’’ said Nikitin, who also beat Conlan in 2013. “I know this is the professional game, and I am happy that I have to chance to prove that I am once again the better fighter.”