MTK Belfast

The #ConlanRevolution returns to Belfast, Northern Ireland on Saturday August 3rd for what promises to be a tremendous night of action, drama and all round stellar entertainment. The MTK promoted fight night is the center piece of the already jam-packed Féile An Phobial festival. ‘The Féile’ as it’s known; translates from Irish Gaelic to ‘The community’s festival’ and it is a week-long festival taking place in Belfast which helps promote Irish culture through diffrent kinds of sport, music and multiple workshops which take place all around the city. Though the card is huge over in Northern Ireland, it’s not really getting any sort of mainstream attention outside the emerald isle or the UK. So, because of that here’s three reasons why you should be hyped for the card: Despite a cancellation, the main event is pretty awesome Michael Conlan was originally slated to rematch Vladimir Nikitin, who he previously lost to in an amateur bout at the Olympics, albeit extremely controversially. You may remember his viral post-fight rant https://www.youtube.com/watch?vXv_cAuuErd4 Despite Nikitin pulling out with an injury, MTK have still managed to bring a stacked card to the Belfast for the fans, as the home-town hero; Michael Conlan will now take on a possibly even bigger challenge as he steps into the ring to face a tough Argentinian in Diego Alberto Ruiz. Ruiz is (21-2) and is a battle tested warrior, who brings with him a ton of experience. Nikitin had nowhere near the level of experience or had even faced the level of opposition that Ruiz has crushed. Despite Ruiz having more experience, Conlan on the other hand, is an undefeated (11-0) phenom who looks set to use this matchup as a way to catapult his way into the mainstream limelight. On paper they’re both quite evenly matched and it’ll be interesting to see if Conlan correctly utilizes this opportunity or it's possible that he falters on the big stage. Conlan The next big thing? In boxing the massive career changing opportunities don’t come around often, but if Conlan was to go out and get a highly entertaining win over a tough and war-tested opponent like Ruiz in front of a sell-out, packed 10,000 seater park. Conlan would use the forward momentum gained from the victory to break out of the Irish scene and become a star state-side. He certainly has the same kind of infallible charisma that other Irish superstars like Conor McGregor have used to become worldwide house-hold names. With a dominant victory here and a few more big wins, Conlan could potentially go on to become one of boxing’s biggest stars and the Féile is the first big hurdle on this quest to worldwide success. The fight is so compelling because it’s his first mammoth challenge, it’ll be the first time he faces an insane level of adversity and we’re hyped to see what happens under the bright lights. https://twitter.com/mickconlan11/status/1154125241003794435 The undercard is stacked MTK Global have managed to absolutely stack the card from the very top all the way to the very bottom. There’s a stellar undercard with some interesting match-ups. Most notably there’s a Commonwealth Welterweight title clash between Belfast’s Paddy Gallagher and Chris Jenkins booked. There’s also a super-middleweight title bout between Padraig McCrory and Steve Collins Jr. If you navigate further down the undercard, you'll find there’s some elite local talent on display as Sean McComb looks set to go to war with Renald Garrido; who’s an incredibly resilient Frenchman. More local talent is on display too as local boxers like the three-time Olympian Paddy Barnes, Callum Bradley, Seanie Duffy and Dee Sullivan all take to the biggest stage.