Road to Rio paved with frustration as Conlan forced to roll with the punches

Michael Conlan will know next month whether he intends to continue on his current road to Rio, or whether the frustrating vagaries of amateur boxing’s scoring system finally push him into the professional game.

The Belfast bantam had been on track to qualify for the Olympic Games through the World Series of Boxing (WSB) with Italia Thunder, only for a controversial defeat to home favourite Kariat Yeraliyev in Kazakhstan last weekend to throw him off course.

Yarilev was awarded the fight on a split decision after a cut to the Kazakh’s left eye caused the bout to be stopped one minute and 53 seconds into the fifth and final round. It was a decision that saw Conlan drop to third in the rankings and outside the qualification.