ALTHOUGH they didn’t meet at the semi-final stage of the Olympic Games as many had hoped, Billy Walsh has backed Michael Conlan and Shakur Stevenson to eventually come together in a world title showdown in Las Vegas some day.
Former Irish head coach Walsh was speaking after watching Team USA’s Stevenson lose a close split decision bantamweight final on Saturday to Cuba’s Robeisy Ramirez, the man who ended Conlan’s Olympic dreams as a flyweight in London four-years-ago.
Nineteen-year-old Stevenson has already signed a deal to turn over to the paid ranks with Floyd Mayweather jnr, while Conlan is expected to follow suit in the coming months.
Had the Belfast switch-hitter progressed against Vladimir Nikitin, the pair would have met in the last-four for a shot at Ramirez and Walsh believes both fighters have the potential to go all the way to the top of the pro game.
“Oh, without a doubt,” said the Wexford man.
“It’ll be a world title fight down the road. Michael Conlan’s maturity and physicality would probably get him there quicker than Shakur at the moment and then yeah, it could be a multi-title big show in Las Vegas somewhere. Maybe we could all go to it.
“That’s where his [Stevenson’s] future is, that’s where he wants to go. We’ll try and keep him for another while, he’ll only be 23 come the next games. If he decides to go, he decides to go - it’s for his future, it’s for his family’s future. If there’s an offer out there and we can’t tempt him to stay, so be it.”
Stevenson was understandably upset after losing to Ramirez at the Riocentro Pavilion on Saturday, the teenager unable to speak to waiting press members as he sobbed uncontrollably into his towel.
Yet, although he worked with some of the top talent Ireland has ever produced in his 14 years at the High Performance unit in Dublin, Walsh says Stevenson is up there with the best of them.
“He’s gutted. He’s probably showing that he is a baby, only just turned 19," he added.
“He’s never been beaten, he’s won a youth World Championships, a youth Olympic Games, this is new territory to him. He goes to the biggest stage and he always performs and wins, so it must be difficult.
“He’s one of the best, he’s class. He has some things to work on. Obviously, a bit of maturity as well, but he has the ability, his movement, his timing, his distance. We just have to work on his workrate, get more flurries of punches, but he has all the tools to be great.”
Following his controversial win over Conlan, Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin was so badly injured he was unable to contest his scheduled semi-final with Stevenson on Thursday.
Ramirez, meanwhile, looked sharp in seeing off Murodjon Akhmadaliev two days previous. Did Walsh feel that lack of action against Nikitin, or even Conlan had he been awarded the decision, worked against Stevenson on Saturday?
“People are saying it might help you and it might not. He might not have won that fight, how can it help you? He was happy to get through, he was looking forward to fighting, but it never happened.
“We could only control the controllables and get ready for today. If he was going to be in with Michael, it was going to be a massive, hard fight. Today, he just ran up a little bit short in the last round.”
WALSH has said nobody has contacted him regarding the director of sport post recently vacated by his former High Performance unit colleague Gary Keegan.
Walsh, who left his post as head coach with the Irish boxers last November, is contracted with Team USA until 2018, but there has been speculation he could be in the frame for the job.
When told he had been linked with the job, the Wexford man replied: “Yes, so I see in the papers. First I’ve heard of it. I haven’t had any word yet.”
