BELFAST, Northern Ireland – Irish boxer Michael Conlan, who famously gestured with his middle fingers at judges at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, said he plans to retire without fulfilling his dream of becoming a world champion.
The 34-year-old featherweight from Belfast lost on Friday night by split decision after 10 rounds to undefeated Kevin Walsh.
Conlan, the favorite, was hoping that a victory would give him a shot at WBC featherweight champion Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington.
“I want to leave now with my health intact and my family well. I did really well in boxing,” a bruised Conlan told reporters with his wife and two children sitting next to him.
“I’ve achieved an awful lot. Have I achieved my goal of becoming the world champion? No. That’s the hardest part of it all.”
One judge scored the fight 97-93 for Conlan (20-4), while the other two scored it 96-94 for Walsh (20-0), a native of Brockton – the same Massachusetts town that produced Rocky Marciano and Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
“I always said that the next defeat – no matter the situation or the circumstances – would mean the end of boxing, and it did,” Conlan said.
“I thought I won, but listen, that’s what it is. I don’t want to do this anymore. It’s time to say goodbye to boxing.”
Conlan fought for the 2023 IBF featherweight world title, losing in the fifth round to Luis Alberto Lopez.
Conlan won a bronze medal for Ireland at the 2012 London Olympics and three years later became amateur world champion, but in 2016 he made headlines at the Rio Games when he lost in the bantamweight quarterfinals by split decision to Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin.
Following the defeat, Conlan went on a profanity-laced tirade on live television, including raising his middle finger as he stood before the judges.
In 2021, an investigator appointed by the International Boxing Association found that boxing medal fights at the 2016 Games were fixed by “complicit and compliant” judges and judges. The report did not provide a verdict on whether the outcome of the Conlan-Nikitin fight had been determined.
In the professional rankings, Conlan defeated Nikitin by unanimous decision in 2019.
“I did really well, but I never achieved my goal of becoming world champion,” Conlan said Saturday. “It’s a relief. Now I can spend time with my family…
“It just wasn’t supposed to be that way, that’s all.”