Walsh says brave Conlan one for future

Michael Conlan made his exit from the Olympic tournament at the hands of a very talented newcomer, Robeisy Ramirez, who won last night’s quarter-final clash on a score of 20-10.

The Cuban whose watertight defence was matched by an accurate jab and some brilliantly executed combinations won every round. He crept clear on the back of a 6-3 first, won the second 4-3 and then went on to dominate the third 10-4 — giving the Belfast flyweight a standing count from a barrage of punches.

Last night things never went right for him. He could not get his punches flowing and he had no answer to the 18 year-old Cuban southpaw’s right jab.

“I never got going tonight — never got my shots going nothing — but he didn’t let me get going,” he said.

“He had a great defence and I was wasting a lot of punches on his gloves when I should have been trying to do other stuff. I’m devastated. I wish I could have got the gold (medal).

“I have a bronze medal in the bag come Sunday. I told Billy before this I’d be fighting on Sunday but I’m not now.

“When I look back now I could have won the fight, definitely. I had those plans but I did not execute them tonight. I just let it drift a bit too far away from me. Like I said his defence was too good.

“I’m over the moon with the bronze medal. I gave it my all. There is nothing more I could ask for than that.

“He’s very good — a lot better than Oubaali was. He’s very strong for an 18 year old. Fair play to him he beat me. I’ll come back from that. You definitely learn a lot more from a defeat than you do from winning.

“It’s been an amazing experience. It’s been too good. The aim coming here was to perform. I came here and went one step further — I performed and I got an Olympic medal. I’m sure everybody back home is proud of me and I’m sure the team is proud of me.”

High Performance Coach Billy Walsh insisted Conlan was one for the future but admitted that the Cuban was special.

“When you look at Michael’s story — he’s two years in international boxing and he never boxed at junior level for Ireland,” he said. “He is really fresh on the seen.

“In just two years he has made a remarkable journey. He’s top eight at the world championships, top eight at the European championships and finally, on the biggest stage of all, he breaks into the medals at the Olympic Games.

“He is definitely one for the future. In four years time he will be 24 — he’ll be coming into his prime. It’s really only a year and a half and that’s amazing progress. He’s got a lot to learn and a lot of development to do. Heading to Rio he’ll be a great prospect.

“If you look at others, if you look at Carruth and McCullough — they went to Seoul with me and then they went to Barcelona and done the business. Look at Nevin, he went to Beijing to get his experience and then came here and did the business.

“We sat down and discussed the future, Michael has talked about it. We told them all we’ll sit down and talk about it after this. The amateur game suits them. There’s not much money in professional boxing and they are well supported by the Irish Sports Council.

“They’ll keep them on funding for the next four years and they guaranteed that.

“That will be the job to hang on to this team because it is a good team and they are young. We can do more damage in Rio.

“Michael has high expectations of himself. He doesn’t like losing. There are not too many people like that. He’s very emotional. He’s very hard on himself if things don’t go right and today things did not go right.

“We haven’t seen the best of him at all yet. He has not really performed to his best. He’s dug in and ground out the results but he has not really showed what he’s capable of doing. I think that’s maybe with the occasion here, the media and the circus that follows the Olympic Games and the hype and the crowd that’s out there.

“Having said that the Cuban is very, very good. He is very strong, very hard defence to break down. We tried all angles to try and get through it and we couldn’t get through it and then got caught. He has very long arms and he is powerful — he can hit as well. We have no complaints. He will have a bright future. He could be one of those Cubans that go on to win three or four gold medals.”