by Austin Ampeloquio – contact me here

Two-time Irish Olympian Michael Conlan will return Saturday, March 17th against Ruben Garcia Hernandez in a ten-round featherweight headlining bout over Saint Patrick’s Day weekend in New York City at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, and broadcast on ESPN+.

Conlan, a 2012 Olympic bronze medalist, made headlines for getting robbed out of advancing to face Shakur Stevenson in the 2016 Olympics and created a social media trend of taking selfies with the fighter flipping off the camera as Conlan flipped off the judges who had no regard for his future in 2016.

Conlan, who signed with Top Rank Inc, since turning professional is now fighting in his second ten-round bout and by the end of this year or early next year will be facing opposition the world as heard of. I won’t lie, up until this point Conlan hasn’t knocked the doors down or set the standard unbearably high, but he has constantly sold tickets, he has won and is improving fight-by-fight.

His opponent, Ruben Garcia Hernandez, has only lost three times to good opposition in former world champions Nonito Donaire and Randy Caballero as well as recent world title challenger Rafael Rivera.

At the very least, this bout showed show how close Conlan is to the upper echelon of his division.

The stacked card also features the return of New York’s own Luis Collazo in a welterweight bout against Samuel Vargas in a ten-round bout, recently signed Top Rank super lightweight Josue Vargas, who now trains with Robert Garcia in Riverside, Ca, but originally from New York, power-punching Joseph Adorno, an east coast native, who also does camps in Riverside with Robert Garcia, featherweight Vladimir Nikitin, the man who won the conterversial win over Michael Conlan in 2016, which could be a future bout on Top Rank card sooner rather than later.

Irish bantamweight Paddy Barnes, superlight John Bauza and super lightweight Lee Reeves round out the card.

For ticket information visit here, the bout will be broadcast on ESPN+.