MICHAEL CONLAN is no stranger to bad decisions. His loss in the quarter-finals of the 2016 Olympic Games caused consternation. Recriminations stemmed from that tournament overall. International amateur boxing is still struggling to reform and boxing currently has been left off the programme for the 2028 Olympic Games.
“Until this organisation that is still in power [AIBA now rebranded as IBA] is completely clean and we can be sure of that, they’ve shot themselves in the foot and took themselves out of the Games, not no one else. Although me talking about it and shouting about it helped. They need to get it sorted,” Conlan said. “It’s unfortunate for the fighters, 100 percent, I don’t think there should be an Olympic Games without boxing and it’ll be really sad to see an Olympic Games without boxing. But we’ve got a bit of time yet, hopefully they can fix it by then.
“It’s been going on for so long. It took till 2016 and me shouting about it for something to actually be done about it. Now something seems to be done about. Can it be fixed? It’s a massive question.
“They’ve got to get their act together.”
The UK is no stranger to bad decisions in professional boxing. The repercussions of the Josh Taylor vs Jack Catterall fight are rumbling through the sport. “There will be international judges in this fight. This will not just be UK judges,” Conlan said. “Why would any fighter want to come to the UK and fight?
“It’s becoming very, very tough to get decisions and that’s unfortunate. Hopefully come March 12 with the eyes of the world watching and everything that’s happened I don’t have to flip the f**king bird again and go crazy. Hopefully.”
Conlan remains confident in how he has pictured this fight with Wood developing. “When I’ve sat and visualised about it, I’ve seen me knocking him out, I’ve seen me stopping him. I’ve seen me beating him on points as well. I’ve seen every kind of outcome which I want to see in this fight. Which one comes to fruition, I’ll just have to find that out on the night,” he said. “I’m not worried about knocking anybody out or doing anything like that. If it comes it comes. It quite possibly could come but at the same time I’m just focused on being the best Michael Conlan that I can be. I know if I can do that no judge in the world can rob me.
“I can beat him on the front foot, I can beat him going on the back foot, I can beat him as an orthodox, I can beat him southpaw. It doesn’t matter what gameplan I choose.
“Leigh’s a good fighter but I’m here just to beat him. Whatever way it happens we’ll see on the night.”
The Wood-Conlan winner will have a rich array of options ahead of him. “Whether we consider having the winner of Kiko Martinez vs Josh Warrington or whether we go down the route of the WBO [belt] with Emanuel Navarrete, these are all possibilities. Or whether we consider a massive showdown in Belfast in the summer, I don’t know, a massive name or a world title on the line but we’ll have plenty of options. I know Top Rank have a lot of stuff lined up after this, we’ll have to see,” Conlan said.
But he can’t look too far ahead. “All that matters is the 36 minutes between me and Leigh Wood…”