The top-flight career of Michael Conlan is surely over after a 10-round split points loss to the unheralded Kevin Walsh on Friday at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. One score of 97-93 to Conlan was trumped by two scores of 96-94 for Walsh. The locals didn’t like it, but Walsh certainly did.
“It was a close fight,” said the huge underdog afterwards. “But I got it done …
“It’s my time!”
Beforehand, Conlan still believed. Lights from the archetypal Last Chance Saloon seemed to guide him, such was his focus as he entered the battleground. But he could sense the end, no doubt.
Hopes remained that Conlan, even after losses in each of his most recent high-profile bouts, could regroup to such an extent that he realized his world title dreams. Yet, perhaps, it was those defeats – to Leigh Wood, Luis Alberto Lopez and Jordan Gill, all inside schedule – that explained the selection of Walsh as the opponent.
A 33-year-old from Brockton, Massachusetts, Walsh came into this 10-rounder with a glossy record but very little in the way of experience at anything approaching top level.
Conlan, a year older and a 2016 Olympian, could boast a return to form of sorts when he halted Jack Bateson in four rounds last September, and on pedigree alone the Northern Irishman was head and shoulders above his latest opponent.
The favorite began this fight like he had begun every fight: right hand probing, his left ready to strike. Seemingly controlled, Conlan nonetheless exhibited what was at stake; there was nervousness to his work, an awareness that the end of it all, his beloved boxing career, could soon be nigh.
By the end of the second round, after taking several right hands that caused blood to escape, Conlan looked to his corner for advice.
Walsh, meanwhile, remained composed. Relieved, almost, that nothing was expected from him, he continued to attack. His right followed his left, a bounce followed a crouch, a step back came after a lunge too far.
Yet there were few punches landing. Walsh – perhaps because expectations of his chances were so low, and because he was growing in confidence – seemed the aggressor. Conlan, though, seemed the better fighter.
That he could get away with popping his jab, standing back and doing very little else was surely testament to his understandable safety-first approach.
Walsh showed ambition, though, particularly in the last round. And it was that ambition, the hands he let go and the targets he hit, that made Walsh the winner tonight.
Matt Christie, a lifelong fight fan, has worked in boxing for more than 20 years. He left Boxing News in 2024 after 14 years, nine of which were spent as editor-in-chief. Before that, he was the producer of weekly boxing show “KOTV.” Now the co-host of ”The Opening Bell” podcast and regularly used by Sky Sports in the UK as a pundit, Matt was named as the Specialist Correspondent of the Year at the prestigious Sports Journalism Awards in 2021, which was the seventh SJA Award he accepted during his stint in the hot seat at Boxing News. The following year, he was inducted into the British Boxing Hall of Fame. He is a member of the BWAA and has been honored several times in their annual writing awards.
