Michael Conlan, a victim of the amateur boxing system to the extent that it cost him a gold medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016, believes the professional boxing waters are filled with even more sharks than the unpaid code.
Conlan, 19-3 (9 KOs), boxes in Dublin for the first time as a pro on September 5 against Jack Bateson at the 3Arena.
The two-time Olympian was widely thought to have been robbed of the decision in the Rio final by Vladimir Nikitin, whom he later beat in the professionals. An IOC investigation into how the AIBA were running Olympic boxing led to the governing body being thrown out of the Games. Subsequently, AIBA became IBA, changed some key personnel, and are now also making moves in the professional code. Conlan will watch what happens with interest.
“Professional boxing is worse because in amateur boxing, decisions and I would even say PEDs to an extent, they're out of your control,” Conlan told BoxingScene.
“[When] you’re on an amateur system, you have a fight and then you're gonna have a fight next week. And losses and shit don't really matter. But with professional boxing, people’s lives matter and their potential of wealth and earnings drops after a loss.
“Obviously, their next purse is going to be much less. They [boxers] spend so much more money in professional boxing out of the money they're earning to obviously progress. You’ve got to pay for things. In the amateur setup, you don't got to pay for sparring. You don't got to pay for your hotel. You don't got to pay for your travel. All that is covered. But in professional boxing, your livelihoods are much more at stake to the choices of judges, promotional backings, drugs, all this. There’s so many intangibles in professional boxing – you can't really count which one's going to fuck you over.”
Conlan boxed at the London 2012 Olympics, and stayed amateur a further four years hopeful he would be able to parlay a gold medal into a lucrative pro career.
Well, the lucrative pro career came, but it did so following a raised middle finger at the judges who gave him a wrongful silver after gifting Nikitin gold.
But there are no regrets surrounding those extra four years in the vest.
“That wasn't a mistake, that made me the money I’ve made in this game,” he said, talking about the notoriety that went with him.
“What happened in Rio, me not winning the gold medal in Rio, made me more money than what I would have made if I had won the gold medal, I believe. I had gold medalists on my undercard, silver medalists on my undercard, like these people were fighting on my undercards, and they went and achieved what I wanted to achieve. Who knows, if I had of went pro, maybe 2015, the year before Rio, after I won the Worlds, maybe it could have been a longer and more successful professional career, but would I be as financially well off as what I have been in pro boxing? Maybe not.”
Rio brought a different kind of fame for Conlan. The middle finger gesture went viral and it is still closely associated with him now, some 10 years on.
“I was known worldwide before I even threw a punch in the professional game,” he added. “I was going to America and selling out arenas on my debut. That doesn't [even] happen for a gold medalist.”
Yet he never wanted to really monetize the middle finger. There was talk of T-shirts, foam hands, and probably much more.
“I could probably still do it because, I'm not kidding, anywhere I go, people always want the photo of me doing this [raises his middle finger], you know what I mean? It's still there. That's what most people know me for. So like, I thought about it and then I said, ‘I don't mind doing the photos and all because it is what it is. It is what made me famous, but I don't want that to be me. I don't want that to be the only thing.”
He could probably still fill the 3Arena with foam hands with the middle finger against Bateson next month.
“That would be funny,” he smiled. “But it’s a gimmick and I don’t want to stick to the gimmick.”
