MiddleEasy got to check out Michael Conlan VS Alberto Diego Ruiz last night at the Feile An Phobail in Falls park, Belfast.
Conlan was originally slated to take on Vladmir Niktin in a rematch of their controversial Olympics clash which saw Conlan lost out to a judges decision. Niktin pulled out of the rematch due to an injury so Argentinian brawler Alberto Diego Ruiz was drafted in as a late replacement. Most expected Conlan to bull-doze over the Journeyman; Ruiz who was a 40/1 underdog and riding a ten fight win-streak went on to defy expectations lasting to the ninth round before being TKOed.
The 27 year-old Irish superstar Conlan out-classed Diego, taking every round on the judges score-cards before finishing the fight with a body shot.
The Conlan fight was pretty meh all round, it wasn’t overtly entertaining as Conlan fought a smart and technical fight; taking zero damage and out-striking and lighting up Ruiz whenever the opportunity was there. It certainly wasn’t a brawl for the ages and I feel like many in attendance left the park feeling like the fight could have been better. Conlan afterwards stated that his hand was injured early in the fight, so he couldn’t commit to the power punches as much as he would have liked.
The co-main event of the evening was also a bit of a dud, as Belfasts Sean McComb glided to a decision victory over France’s Renaldo Garrido who had a professional record of 24 wins and 24 losses going into the fight with McComb. Many expected that McComb would completely obliterate the ‘Artem-esque’ Frenchman but it didn’t happen, McComb just jabbed and moved his way to victory.
The absolute stand-out clash of the night was Padraig McCrory VS Steve Collins Jr. The pair engaged in a back and forth war of attrition with Padraig finishing the fight in dramatic fashion in the eight round. Both boxers were rocked and tired after just a few rounds but they managed to slug it out and put on an absolute show-case leaving everyone entertained.
MiddleEasy was credentialed to work as part of the photography unit but unfortunately we couldn’t get ringside positioning as that was reserved for the bourgeoisie outlets, so we had to resort to a more MiddleEasian / freaky way of capturing the nights action.
Check out our pics of the arena:
Our video of the walkout:
The rest of our random pics before being threw out of ringside:
