Notes on Michael Conlan and Naoya Inoue and the NFL Draft

On Tuesday, March 17, Michael Conlan returns to the Theater at Madison Square Garden where he made his pro debut. Conlan is appearing in the Big Apple on St. Patrick’s Day for the fourth straight year. The Belfast featherweight will oppose Columbia’s Belmar Preciado.

It will be the U.S. debut for the 31-year-old Preciado who brings a 20-2-1 (13) record. However, only nine of his 20 wins came against opponents with winning records. In his one big step-up fight, he fought Japanese veteran Hiroshige Osawa in Osaka and was stopped in the ninth round.

Conlan, 28, is undefeated in 13 pro fights but hasn’t been moved as fast as Top Rank stablemates Shakur Stevenson and Teofimo Lopez, both of whom are six years younger than the Irishman. Stevenson won a world tile in his 13^th pro fight; Teofimo in his 15^th.

It’s plain that those mapping out Conlan’s career have doubts about his upside. Thomas Hauser, writing in March of 2018 after Conlan had obliterated Hungarian slug David Berna, had this to say: “His ring skills are more suited to the amateur than professional ranks. But Top Rank will give him exposure on ESPN and a diet of opponents he can beat while maneuvering him to a title opportunity against weak opposition.”

Conlan’s older brother Jamie Conlan was 19-0 with 11 KOs when he challenged Jerwin Ancajas for the IBF world super flyweight title. Jamie was out of his league. He was on the canvas four times before the bout was mercifully halted in the sixth round after which Jamie Conlan wisely retired.

Will Michael Conlan’s career mirror that of his older brother?

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While Conlan-Preciado is an uninteresting fight, the same can’t be said of Naoya Inoue’s match with John Riel Casimero set for April 25 in Las Vegas at a venue yet to be determined. This will be Inoue’s debut under the Top Rank banner.

Inoue fought once previously in the United States, but his match with Antonio Nieves in Carson, California, wasn’t the main attraction, playing second or third fiddle to the rematch between Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez. Since then, the baby-faced “Monster” from Yokohama scored four fast knockouts over high-grade opponents and came out on top in a 12-round war with formidable Nonito Donaire. His name now appears on all the pound-for-pound lists.

Three world bantamweight title belts will be at stake when Inoue (19-0, 16 KOs) meets John Riel Casimero (29-4, 20 KOs) who is coming off a smashing third-round knockout of favored Zolani Tete in Birmingham, England. The battle-tested Casimero, a 30-year-old Filipino, has won titles in four weight classes (108, 112, 115, 118) and answered the bell for 219 rounds.

The date set aside for Inoue-Casimero coincides with the final day of the NFL Draft, a three-day affair that Las Vegas will host. This reporter remembers when the NFL Draft was a non-event. With a big assist from ESPN, it has bubbled into an extravaganza. The 2019 NFL Draft in Nashville attracted an estimated crowd of 600,000 who pumped $134 million into the local economy.

The center of the Las Vegas Strip will be ground zero for the 2020 NFL Draft with the main festivities taking place outside Caesars Palace and across the street in the man-made lake of the Bellagio where a floating stage will be erected. This portion of the Strip will be closed to vehicular traffic during much of the daytime and early evening hours.

The bottom line for out-of-towners coming to Las Vegas for the Inoue-Casimero fight is that they will pay through the nose if they plan to stay where the action will be most intense. According to an article in the LA Times, the Cosmopolitan, which sits adjacent to the Bellagio and is presumably in the running to host the fight, is quoting a rate of $1,982 including resort fees for a three-night stay that particular weekend.

The NFL Draft is unusual in that interest wanes as it wears on. The later rounds are of primary interest to hard-core fans. So, by Saturday most of the energy will be gone and the fight will take on a larger presence.

It will be interesting to see how many reporters who don’t usually cover boxing find their way to the fight venue. From Top Rank’s perspective, I’m thinking the more, the merrier. The full-time boxing writer at a daily newspaper has become an anachronism. Getting more writers from mainstream papers to cover the sport can only help push it back into the mainstream.

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