The fire still burns for happy but determined Michael Conlan

WATERFORD – Featherweight contender Michael Conlan admits he is inching closer toward a final decision about the direction his return to the ring will take.

Conlan, who lost to Jordan Gil a year ago, was being trained by Pedro Diaz, but he has since joined Grant Smith at the Steel City Gym in Sheffield to have another run at a world title.

While he has a trainer, he is still talking to promoters about his future.

“There’s nothing I can confirm yet because nothing’s done yet,” said the Irish hero. “I’m speaking to a good few promoters, and I hope to have something done, signed, before Christmas.

“I want to go into the New Year with a training camp, and a date, and work towards that. I don’t want to be carrying this ‘what’s happening, what’s happening’ into the New Year. I just want to get it done now and we’re close on two or three.”

Dual Olympian Conlan is 18-3 (9 KOs) and has lost his last two, albeit with a backdrop of carnage in his private life. As such, he is patient for a slow build as he finds his feet again, and refuses to call anyone out.

“I thought about this recently and I’m not coming back to say, ‘I want this guy, I want this guy.’ I have the goals in my head and how I want to get there, but I’m just coming back to be me and do me. Keep myself to myself, keep my head down, and grind until I get to where I want to and that’s to be a world champion.

“Featherweight is always a very hard weight. I’ll be happy to take any of them on, but first and foremost I’ve got to come back, build that rapport with my coach, Grant Smith, and I think our relationship is really good, so I’m happy at the minute, and that’s the main thing.

“I’m in a good place mentally, for fighting and now we’ve got to pull triggers on where I want to go, but world champion is where I’ve always wanted to be. I wouldn’t still be boxing if it wasn’t to be a world champion. 

“If I didn’t believe I could be world champion, I wouldn’t do it, because it’s a hard game. I know I still have the ability. I know that with the last two fights there were so many intangibles going on in the background which nobody knows and nobody will know because it’s personal and private, but now I’m in a good place moving forwards.”