After Olympic nemesis Vladimir Nikitin bowed out due to injury, Michael “Mick” Conlan found a new opponent for his Belfast homecoming in Diego Alberto Ruiz (21-2, 10 KOs). The veteran from Argentina will look to upset Conlan (11-0, 6 KOs) in front of roughly 10,000 fans on Saturday at Falls Park as part of the Féile an Phobail summer festival. The bout will air on ESPN+.

“Having Diego Alberto Ruiz step in for Vladimir Nikitin didn’t really change how I approach the fight,” said Conlan. “I suspect Ruiz will come forward but maybe not as aggressively as Nikitin was going to. For me, I wanted the toughest fighter we could get after Nikitin fell out, and that’s what I told Top Rank and MTK Global. Every fight to me is important, but I wanted to make sure the August 3 fight in West Belfast was going to entertain the huge crowd.”