Michael Conlan fights in Northern Ireland on Saturday
Michael “Mick” Conlan will make his long-awaited homecoming on Saturday when he headlines a card from The SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Conlan (7-0, 5 KOs) will face former world title challenger Adeilson Dos Santos (19-4, 15 KOs) in a scheduled 10-rounder, which will be streamed live and exclusively in the United States on ESPN+, the recently launched multi-sport, direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service from The Walt Disney Company’s Direct-to-Consumer & International segment in conjunction with ESPN.
The Conlan-Dos Santos broadcast will begin at 2:30 p.m. ET with an action-packed undercard.
“What a huge honor it is for me to box back in my home city,” said Conlan. “I’ve been to an awful lot of huge boxing events around the world, and there are very few that can match the atmosphere the people of Belfast can generate.”
Conlan, a 2016 Olympian, ranks among the most decorated amateurs in Irish history. He captured gold medals at the 2015 World Championships, 2015 European Championships, and 2014 Commonwealth Games. Conlan made his pro debut on March 17, 2017 in front of a sold-out crowd at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, knocking out Tim Ibarra in the third round. In his last bout, May 12 at Madison Square Garden on the Vasiliy Lomacheko-Jorge Linares undercard, Conlan shut out Ibon Larrinaga over eight rounds.
Dos Santos is Conlan’s most experienced opponent to date. A native of Brazil, he challenged Jessie Magdaleno for the WBO super bantamweight title on April 22, 2017 and was stopped in the second round. Dos Santos’ last five victories have come via knockout.
The ESPN+ event is also scheduled to include Jack Catterall (21-0, 12 KOs) defending the WBO Intercontinental super lightweight title against Tyrone McKenna (16-0-1, 6 KOs); Jono Carroll (15-0, 2 KOs) making the first defense of the IBF Intercontinental junior lightweight title against Declan Geraghty (17-2, 4 KOs); Tyrone McCullagh (10-0, 6 KOs) battling Joe Ham (14-0, 5 KOs) for the vacant Celtic super bantamweight title; and Johnny Coyle (18-0-1, 2 KOs) versus Lewis Benson (10-0, 2 KOs) in a 10 -round super lightweight fight.