Michael Conlan goes up against Jordan Gill on Saturday, December 2 at at SSE Arena Belfast in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The pair squares off in the 12-round main event bout live on DAZN.
Former two-time world title challenger Conlan (18-2, 9 KOs) is looking to return to winning ways. The Belfast native last fought in May, when he challenged Luis Alberto Lopez for his IBF featherweight title, but was stopped in the fifth round. Prior to that, the 32-year-old won two bouts in a row, after failing his first bid to land a world title last March, when he faced Leigh Wood for the WBA strap, but suffered the defeat via 12th round TKO.
“There’s an awful lot of reasons why,” Michael Conlan said at the final pre-fight press conference. “I know I’ll get him out of there. He lacks something. He has quit in him. And that’s it.”
“I’m not going back and saying this happened in sparring, this happened in sparring. Sparring is sparring. Things happen.”
“But if you wanted to take confidence from anything, you know, I definitely can. And I’ve seen an awful lot of things throughout that time and even in his performances since that time, I’ve seen an awful lot of things where you go ‘yeah ok, I understand’. ‘I know what I got to do.’”
“So, going into Saturday night you can look back to the sparring all you want and I’m sure he probably does an awful lot but I’m just focused on the job and that’s going in there and getting the win on Saturday.”
‘He’s the star of the show, I’m just the opponent’
Former European and Commonwealth champion Gill (27-2-1, 8 KOs) steps inside the squared circle for the first time in over a year and also looks to rebound from the defeat. The native of Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire was in action last October, when he dropped his EBU European featherweight belt via fourth-round TKO against Kiko Martinez. In February 2022, the 29-year-old KO’d Karim Guerfi in the ninth round and secured the title.
“I feel great,” Jordan Gill said. “There’s no pressure on me at all. That’s the way I’m looking at this. This is a massive opportunity for me to put myself where I need to be. I’m just buzzing and ready to go. I’m feeling strong and I’m feeling great. Tomorrow on the scales I’m not going to look like a skeleton like I did at 126lbs. I should have moved up maybe 3 or 4 years ago. One fight that highlighted that I have no quite in me is the Guerfi fight. Whether I have to do that again we’ll find out.”
“It’s going to be a great fight. When he boxed Leigh it was fight of the year. I’m expecting another one on Saturday. I’m really excited and ready to go. All of the pressure is on him. He’s the star of the show, I’m just the opponent.”
In the co-main event, Caoimhin Agyarko (13-0, 7 KOs) of Belfast, Northern Ireland takes on former British champion Troy Williamson (20-1-1, 14 KOs) of Darlington, England. The bout is scheduled for 10 rounds at super welterweight.
In Australia, Conlan vs Gill airs on Sunday, December 3 live on Kayo.
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