Michael Conlan Deciding on New Trainer Ahead of ‘Final’ Run at Glory

Michael Conlan is going to have one more shot at making his world-title dream come true.

The 32-year-old Irishman Conlan was stopped in an upset by Jordan Gill last December in his first fight under trainer Pedro Diaz and with chaos behind the scenes in his personal life.

Conlan believes he has one more title shot left in him, after previous losses to Luis Lopez and Leigh Wood.

One of Ireland’s great amateurs, Conlan is 18-3 (9 KOs) as a professional and was heartbroken in the aftermath of the loss to Gill, as he had been after defeat by Lopez in the fight beforehand.

He has put no time frame on when he might return, and it might not even be this year – it could be early in 2025. But he has no desire to rush his decisions or his moves.

One of the early calls he will have to make is where, and with whom, he trains, and Buddy McGirt, Stephen Smith and Grant Smith are all being considered. Conlan has been impressed by all three in recent private sessions.

“I’ve been trying out a few coaches over the past few days,” he said. “I’m with Stephen at the minute, I’ve tried Grant Smith and I’ve tried Buddy McGirt again.”

McGirt had been in the frame, along with Jorge Rubio, before Conlan settled on Diaz for Gill after an amicable parting from Adam Booth.

“I’m going to take some time before I make a decision.”

Conlan is still operating in boxing on a business level, working with Frank Warren on the Belfast show this week with one of his fighters, Pierce O’Leary, in the co-main event. Then on Saturday, Conlan Boxing has its own show at the Liverpool Olympia.

“I feel refreshed,” Conlan said. “The first session I did back boxing was the end of May, and I did four rounds on the bag and I was blowing.”

Conlan, who did months of long-distance running as he wrestled with his decision to return, will still be boxing under Matchroom and is not fazed by the size of the platform he’ll be returning on.

“I’ve said, for the first one back, if ‘Boots’ [Ennis] fights in Philadelphia again, put me on the undercard of that, I’ll sell a load of tickets – there’s a big Irish community in Philly,” Conlan said. “Put me on somewhere out of the way, where I can go back, work on things, work on new things, not fight world champions or potential world champions right away. I want to get back in, get the job done and then move on to the next, and we will plan from there.”

Conlan might not need the money or the glory, having achieved so much, but he does not want to go out with the Gill fight being the last act of his career – or without one last run at a title he remains convinced that he can capture.

“The Gill fight, I don’t take anything from that fight,” he reflected. “I trained six weeks, basically, because the fight was announced eight weeks out. I had a brand new coach, [with a] language barrier and everything – one of the best coaches I’ve worked with – but probably too late in the day to start working with him. I flew out to Miami eight weeks out, you lose the first week, obviously, with the time and fight week you don’t train, so you do a little bit of pads, but it’s not much. So I basically trained for six weeks and it was probably the wrong thing to do.”

Conlan said he might take until August to decide on who will train him, but he is making each move with the understanding that a wrong move in his career will be the last one.