Huge crowd at open workout for Conlan
A huge crowd was in attendance at Belfast City Hall Wednesday to witness Michael Conlan get put through his paces at the open workout ahead of Saturday’s historic #MTKFightNight at Feile an Phobail.
Conlan (11-0, 6 KOs) faces fearsome Diego Alberto Ruiz (21-2, 10 KOs) at Falls Park, live on BT Sport in association with Frank Warren, and live on ESPN+ in association with Top Rank.
Conlan was overwhelmed with the support he received at the workout and is eager to reward those loyal supporters with a performance to remember this weekend.
? "I'm humbled by it all…"@MickConlan11 reflects on another special day as a massive crowd was in attendance at the open workouts.
MORE ➡ https://t.co/Af6ljTMLWg
? TIX: https://t.co/3yHLmo7yvL#MTKFightNight
? Falls Park, Belfast
? @BTSport / @ESPN+#TeamMTKGlobal pic.twitter.com/eu3hR9K6xt— MTK Global ? (@MTKGlobal) July 31, 2019
Conlan said in a press release: “It means the world to me. Having all of these fans come away from work to support me during the workouts is fantastic. The atmosphere around the fight has been phenomenal, and I can’t thank MTK Global, Feile an Phobail and Top Rank enough.
“Feile is a West Belfast festival, but with this fight, it’s become about the entire country and now it’s going to be shown around the world. It’s amazing for me and for the city.
“I’m grateful to have the fight shown on these huge platforms, and for me, I see that as a big achievement as I’m already doing that after only 11 fights, so it’s really special.
“An outdoors boxing event like this has never been done before in West Belfast, so for me to be the spearhead of it all is very humbling.”
There were hundreds of fans gathered at the City Hall to see the stars of Saturday’s show, as along with Conlan, the likes of Paddy Gallagher, Luke Keeler and Paddy Barnes were also showing their skills to the passionate crowd.
Along with Conlan’s showdown with Ruiz, a huge bill also includes Paddy Gallagher vs. Chris Jenkins for the British & Commonwealth welterweight titles, Luke Keeler vs. Luis Arias, Alfredo Meli vs. Araik Marutjan, Padraig McCrory vs. Steve Collins Jr for the Celtic super-middleweight title, Sean McComb vs. Renald Garrido, Olympic hero Paddy Barnes, Dennis McCann, Callum Bradley, Sean Duffy, and Dee Sullivan.
Marquis Johns is a unknown humorist and avid boxing fan. His love for the sweet science goes back to when matches were 15 rounds and has been covering fights since closed-circuit pay-per-views. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth is not only a quote by Mike Tyson, it's also a pretty good reminder to keep your guard up.