Billy Walsh to keep Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan ‘busy’ ahead of Olympics

Irish head coach Billy Walsh is planning to keep Paddy Barnes and Michael Conlan busy in quality tournaments ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games.

The pair returned home yesterday after securing places for Rio 2016 with Italia Thunder in the World Series of Boxing after claiming split and unanimous decisions away to Venezuela on Saturday.

Barnes won seven out of seven in the WSB to secure the one Olympic berth in the light-fly class and Conlan won five of his seven fights to finish in the top two in the bantam category.