Conlan medal magic as battle plan comes off

Michael Conlan watched Paddy Barnes win the bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Beijing four years ago and, last night, he heaped pressure on his fellow Belfast man by claiming a bronze medal for himself at London 2012, Barnes boxing for his second bronze tonight.

Conlan turned in a mature performance to outfox and then outpoint French flyweight, Nordine Oubaali, 22-18, in a thrilling quarter final.

For the fight, Conlan changed his stance to southpaw, but adapted the plan that won him both his previous fights at the world championships and a four nations tournament in France, pushing his man back and snatching the points.

Oubaali won a bronze medal at light flyweight in the world championships in Chicago in 2007. That took him to the Olympics where he went out to the eventual winner, Zou Shiming, on a countback — the closest anyone has ever come to beating the Chinesesuperstar.

It was their third time meeting and Conlan won the other two contests — at the world championships in Baku last year when he won 20-17 to qualify for the Olympics and this year he beat Oumaali 18-16 at a Four Nations Tournament in Berck-sur-Mer.

This time Conlan played to the plan that won him both those contests, this time a southpaw stance catching the Frenchman by surprise. Oubaali tried to bully his way forward but Conlan stood his ground, caught him with some solid punches but was lucky enough to tie the first round 5-5.

The second was again tied, this time 7-7, but Conlan had taken control at the end of the round and when he came out with all guns blazing for the third the Frenchman eventually gave up and played out the last minute with the 20 year old Belfast man well on his way to winning the round 10-6.

“It’s unreal — words can’t describe how I’m feeling right now. It’s amazing,” Conlan said.

“I knew I’d be here. I knew I’d be here because when I watched Andy Lee and I watched Amir Kahn I knew I’d be here and I am here today. Thank God I’ve got a medal — I went one further than Andy and, hopefully, I can go one further than Khan.

“Billy told me to put the boot down going into the third round. He told me to wake up a bit.

“I was a bit quieter than what I had been in recent fights with him, but, thank God, he gave me that slap on the head and pushed me on. It drove me on and I got the win.

“My tactics kind of worked in the last round, so I was happy with that.”

Billy Walsh was delighted with a third medal for his boxers and Paddy Barnes still to come tonight. “It was fantastic,” he said.

“I knew it was always going to be tough. He beat him twice, but every time they fought there’s been nothing in it. In the first fight at the world championships Michael was behind, level in the second and then in the last round he had to dig it out as well. He has a fantastic engine. We knew that. He outworked his man. The guy gave up.

“You could see him visibly giving up. You don’t see that so often. It was great testament to the young man.

“He is just 20 years of age. It was easy to walk away from that, get out of the battle, but he stayed in the battle and won the battle.”