Michael Conlan had just a couple of spars left in camp and life would all of a sudden change.
Post-fight, there will be family time, perhaps a vacation somewhere hot, and more golf as the days lengthen and the weather begins to turn.
That is very different from camp, where his days are made up of running, training, and playing Call of Duty in his apartment in Sheffield.
That is where he has spent the last few months, preparing for Friday night’s fight with Kevin Walsh at the SSE Arena in Belfast.
Conlan racks up hours on the hit video game, but admits he is not as good as many players out there.
“I’m not the best,” he smiles. “I’m nowhere near [where he was] a few years ago. I actually was very good during lockdown and stuff. But when I leave [camp], I don’t play too consistently. It’s only training camps for me. So you’re talking about still probably 36 weeks a year but when you go home and you take some time off, you come back, you’re rusty for a while.”
A dedicated player probably is at their console for 10-12 hours a day. Conlan might play four, but not in a single sitting. He might play in the morning, train, do some interviews, play again before bed and then start to wind down before going to sleep.
“I stop at about nine o’clock,” he explains. “Nine o’clock, I’ll call it off and then I’ll go to bed.”
He’s also restarted watching boxsets he’s seen before, and is in the midst of Breaking Bad once again.
“I forgot how good it was, because it’s been a long time since I watched it. And you’re watching it and you’re going, ‘Wow, this is unbelievable.’ I’m back fully entrenched in it.”
It is known that Esports gamers hit a peak when they are far younger than the 34-year-old Conlan is.
“I just can’t compete, they’re just freaks at this,” he adds, not just at Call of Duty but having played a recent Tiger Woods game online.
The Irishman thinks the youngsters see things quicker and react faster and he believes there is synergy between his own career and gaming in the sense that the hobby will end when his time as an active boxer does. It is just a tool to alleviate boredom for now.
“That’s when it ends,” he says.
“When I retire from boxing I’ll retire from gaming, that’s me done.”
There will likely be more golf in Conlan’s future, however.
He enjoys walking around the course, racking up the miles, and is happy playing by himself and being alone with his thoughts.
“And at this stage, I don’t care how my shots are,” he smiles. “I’m just like, yep, just keep going, you’re just burning calories [walking around a course]. If I’m over here in Sheffield and it’s a good day and I’m by myself, I’ll go and play by myself. It’s brilliant. You’re just there in your own head, in your own thoughts, enjoying it.”
Conlan feels the same benefits when running in solitude.
It is there, however, where he tells himself what is most important. It is while he is running – spending time away from his family and on the streets of Sheffield, where he relocates to train with Grant Smith – when he repeatedly reminds himself why he is doing what he is doing.
“I’m going to be world champion. It’s as simple as that,” he says, asked what goes through his head mile after mile. “That’s the only thought when it comes to boxing in my head that I have is I’ll be world champion and I’ve just got to keep beating the guys in front of me to get there.”
Tris Dixon covered his first amateur boxing fight in 1996. The former editor of Boxing News, he has written for a number of international publications and newspapers, including GQ and Men’s Health, and is a board member for the Ringside Charitable Trust and the Ring of Brotherhood. He has been a broadcaster for TNT Sports and hosts the popular “Boxing Life Stories” podcast. Dixon is a British Boxing Hall of Famer, an International Boxing Hall of Fame elector, a BWAA award winner, and is the author of five boxing books, including “Damage: The Untold Story of Brain Trauma in Boxing” (shortlisted for the William Hill Sportsbook of the Year), “Warrior: A Champion’s Search for His Identity” (shortlisted for the Sunday Times International Sportsbook of the Year) and “The Road to Nowhere: A Journey Through Boxing’s Wastelands.” You can reach him @trisdixon on X and Instagram.
