IRISH former OLYMPIAN Michael Conlan won the WBA interim Featherweight title on Friday, defeating TJ Doheny.
TJ Doheny from Portlaoise, is an Irish professional former world champion, a boxer who held the IBF super-bantamweight title from 2018 to 2019 and challenged for the WBA (Super) super-bantamweight title in 2019.
The bout was held at Falls Park, Belfast in front of 8,000 boxing fans.
Michael Conlan, from Belfast, opened the first round in controlled fashion, landing body shots while also keeping Doheny back with his jab. During the fifth round, one of those punches to the body forced a standing count for Doheny.
Related other Irish Boxing News
- Kellie Harrington's mum reveals touching way she found out her daughter had made it to Olympic final
- Irish boxer forced to pull out of Olympic Silver medal fight after injuring himself while celebrating quarter-final win
Great credit to Doheny who came back from there, and fought and applied pressure to Conlon throughout the remainder of the fight, including the last seconds of the final round. He found Conlan too evasive however, and Conlan won through with a convincing score.
The 3 judges awarded the unanimous and convincing victory to Michael Conlan, in scorecards of 116-111, 116-11 and 119-108.
The 8,000 local Belfast crowd erupted in support of their local boxer, as he was declared the winner.
How does the win open new World Title opportunities for Conlan?
There are plans for Conlan to be given a World Title fight.
By winning the WBA Interim featherweight title he could go on to challenge WBA champion Leigh Wood – or the September winner of a bout between WBO champion Stephen Fulton and WBC belt holder Brandon Figueroa. Conlan would need to drop down to super-bantamweight to challenge the winner of that fight.
For now, Michael Conlan is the WBA interim Featherweight Champion.
What a night, what an atmosphere. Thank you West Belfast & thank you Ireland, that was for you!💥🥊🇮🇪 #TheConlanRevolution pic.twitter.com/nnZeE6TXLN
— Michael Conlan (@mickconlan11) August 7, 2021
