Featherweight “Mick” Conlan will return less than five months removed from his brutal KO loss against WBA champion Leigh Wood. Conlan (16-1, 8 KOs) will battle Colombian puncher Miguel Marriaga (30-5, 28 KOs) in the 10-round main event Saturday, Aug. 6, at The SSE Arena as part of Belfast’s annual Féile an Phobail festival. Conlan-Marriaga and undercard bouts will stream live and exclusively in the U.S. on ESPN+.
“There is no place like home, and we are thrilled that Mick will get another chance to perform in front of the tremendous Belfast fans,” said Top Rank chairman Bob Arum. “With a win over a solid opponent like Marriaga, he’ll once again be contending for a featherweight world title in short order.”
I see this as a high-risk fight for Conlan.
Marriaga’s record is probably a little bloated in terms of his punch, but he does hit solid imo and I don’t know if I would want Conlan in with a guy like that who certainly goes rounds, in his first fight after a ko like that. But full credit to him, he earned more of my respect than ever after the Wood fight and I wish him the best. Just wish he would have taken a little more time off ideally.
I agree Lucie. Like Berchelt he is coming back against a guy with a high KO%. He is also coming back a lot faster. The KO % maybe somewhat miss leading but from my experience fighters from Columbia tend to be KO punchers. Conlan may win but if I were in charge I would pick a softer touch after a longer rest. Some processes should not be rushed.
Colombia
Sorry for the misspelling.
That’s a great comparison to Berchelt, Pete. The Colombian guys do tend to have big, gaudy KO records and sometimes they’re overdone, but sometimes they’re Edison Miranda. I think Marriaga is probably somewhere between the two. He does, obviously, throw hard, only been stopped once and he’s 35 and has had several shots in big fights. This might be his last one. So I’m expecting a very dangerous Marriaga in this one – too dangerous for me if I’m working for Conlan.
If Marriaga is too dangerous then Conlan should retire. Marriaga is a plug who has lost to the best 5 fighters he has fought in not even close fights. If Conlan cant get by a 35 year old Marriaga then he should start working on phase 2 of the rest of his life
That maybe true Darin. I think the point I am trying to make is that based on what happened in Conlan’s last fight IMO they should be very careful. I think of Jermain Taylor with his two 12th rd ko losses to Carl Froch and Arthur Abraham. I believe those fights permanently damaged him. On the other hand when Joe Messi returned after his medical scare he took a softer route and was able to likely realize that he was not able to go to the next level again. You are right if Conlan cannot handle Marriaga he may want to move on..I am just saying that a longer rest and some softer touches might be a safer way for him to test the water s and see where he is at. If after a couple of easy wins everything seems in order then he could try someone like Marriaga.