BILLY Walsh had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.
A few months earlier, he had celebrated in the ring with Michael Conlan after guiding him to the gold medal at the 2015 World Championships.
That success was the high point of the successful collaboration between the Wexford coach and the Belfast fighter that also included bronze at the 2012 Olympics and gold at European Championships.
There were bad times too when results didn’t go as planned and through it all Walsh and Conlan established a lasting friendship.
Now – after leaving Ireland to take the role as head coach of the USA team for the 2016 Olympics – Walsh’s job was to stop Conlan winning in Rio.
Torn between duty and honour, in the end he decided that trying to bring down his former fighter and friend was a bridge too far.
As Conlan dipped through the ropes for a quarter-final against Vladimir Nikitin that he was expected to win, Walsh secretly made the decision not to be in Shakur Stevenson’s corner for the semi-final meeting he felt was a foregone conclusion.
“I was dreading the fact, absolutely dreading it, that we were going to fight next,” explained the Wexford native, who is now based in Colorado.
“Ten months’ previous I was in Michael’s corner when he became Ireland’s first male world champion and now I was thinking: ‘I’m going to be in the opposite corner with Shakur’.
“I’ve never told anybody this but I wasn’t going to do the corner. I was going to step aside because I didn’t see Nikitin beating him. I didn’t think he had the ability to beat Michael although he’s tough and strong and aggressive.
“I was watching the fight in the warm-up area because we were in next and I had already decided in my head that I was going to step away from that fight. I didn’t think it would be fair to anybody (to be involved) so I wasn’t going to do it.”
Of course he needn’t have worried because the fight he dreaded never happened.
Conlan hammered Nikitin for the best part of three rounds but lost on decision even though the Russian was so badly beaten that he wasn’t fit to face Walsh’s man Stevenson in the semi-final.
“I could not believe the decision,” says Walsh.
“How could anybody in their right mind not give Conlan that fight? He boxed the head off the guy, Nikitin was cut all over the place and there was blood all over the place.
“It was part of some of skulduggery that went on in Rio.”
Nikitin has had the happy (from his point of view) knack of running into Conlan when factors outside the ring were in his favour. Three years before Rio, Walsh was in Conlan’s corner for his first run-in with the Russian. East met West Belfast in a bantamweight clash at the 2013 World Championships in Kazakhstan and in a hap-hazard last minute reshuffle, Conlan had been hastily moved up to the 56kg. The switch did not work.
“It was a really tough, close fight,” Walsh recalls.
“Paddy (Barnes) didn’t make 49kg so Michael went up to 56kg. It was Michael’s first real fight at that weight division and it was nip and tuck.
“There wasn’t a whole lot in it and it was a tough battle because Nikitin comes to fight.
“Michael probably got caught up too much in the fight and fought him instead of boxing him.
“It was the physicality of not having fought internationally at that weight division that took its toll on the decision and the contest.
“Moving up a weight at the last minute, physically and mentally you’re not going to be in the right place and Michael wasn’t physically strong enough at that stage.
“There were parts of it where we were in control but we had to make the decision to move him up to 56kg when we were out there so it wasn’t ideal.”
A review was conducted in the aftermath of those championship everything had been turned around by the time the first bell rang in Doha in 2015. Ireland finished fourth in the medal table. Conlan won gold, Joe Ward (silver) and Michael O’Reilly (bronze).
“Some of the practices we were doing in 2013 weren’t Olympic or World Championship level but we turned things around among ourselves as a team and reaped the rewards in Doha,” says Walsh.
If Doha was the high point of Conlan’s amateur career then Rio was the low point; or at least the turning point.
“After the disappointment of that loss to Nikitin, Conlan was snapped up by Bob Arum’s Top Rank promotional agency and has since moved to 12-0 as a professional.
He continues to display the skill, tenacity and single-minded ambition that marked him out as a future champion in Walsh’s astute eyes from their early days together.
“Every time I went to the ring with Michael Conlan he was an out-and-out winner and he had nothing else on his mind only coming out the victor, he would leave everything in there to make that happen,” says Walsh.
“I started with him when he was 16 or 17 when he came down to the gym first and he was always pretty driven.
“He had an engine and a workrate and intensity. He never stopped, he wanted to get better and improve, he had a great outlook and he wanted to be the best in the world.
“He became that as an amateur and there’s no doubt that he will do that as a professional as well.
“Without doubt he has that potential in him. He has the boxing ability, the knowledge, desire, passion… He has all of that.
“He punches decent but he’s not one of those complete knockout punchers – it’s going to be the volume of punches that will take you out.
“He is a very good body puncher which will play a significant part in the fight. His attributes are his workrate, his engine, his skill, his defence – he doesn’t get hit as much as other people.
“He is going to out-box opponents – especially at the higher levels when he is fighting for titles – more than knock them out.”
Alongside those God-given talents, Walsh and Conlan worked on developing his composure.
Walsh regards Conlan as “an emotional guy” and that passion is another attribute as long as he is able to control it.
“Myself and Michael have spoken on several occasions throughout his career and controlling his emotions can be difficult for him because he wears his heart on his sleeve,” he says.
“That doesn’t always work out the best for you when you’re in the ring and someone is trying to take your head off!
“You have to keep cool, calm and collected at times like that but he’s a passionate guy, that’s who he is and that’s his make-up. You can’t lose that but you have to try and manage it.”
On Saturday night, Conlan meets Nikitin for the third time.
In previous meetings, circumstances outside the ring have played a massive role but Walsh still rates the Russian warrior as a dangerous opponent. If Nikitin goes down at the Garden, he says, he’ll go down swinging.
“I think Michael will win but he will have to be at his best,” said Walsh.
“Everybody knows the history of what has gone on. Nikitin isn’t coming over to lose because his career is at a crossroads as well and he’s going to be giving everything he has.
“He is strong and as the rounds go on he may get an opportunity. But Michael has grown so much since the last time they fought that I can see him leaving Nikitin in his wake.
“Once he controls his emotion and stays with the task and the tactics his coach will provide for him I think he’ll completely out-smart and out-box him.”
He adds: “But Nikitin is dangerous, he’s dangerous with his head. He’s been around and at the end of the day he has won a lot of stuff internationally. To be on the Russian team you have to be exceptionally good because there is so much talent over there.
“He’s tough, he’s durable he’s strong and he’ll be in thee for the fight. He’ll make it difficult for Michael but all the class and the flair is with Michael.”
Since those turbulent days in Rio, Walsh’s fighter Shakur Stevenson (a silver medallist at those Games) has moved on to 13-0 and has already captured the WBO featherweight title.
Nikitin’s win denied the world the chance to see Conlan take on ‘Fearless’ and Walsh says they should be kept apart as pros until both have world titles to fight for. Don’t ask him to call the winner though.
“I have a really good relationship with both of them so it would be very unfair for me to call that one,” he said.
“I would have to sidestep that but I think that there are easier fish for both of them to fry and I don’t think they’ll meet unless the finances are right.
“It needs to be a good payday because one of them will lose his unbeaten record and that might push them back a bit.
“When it does happen, and it mightn’t be for a year or two, it should happen when both of them have titles and they are trying to unify the division and getting a big payday for it.
“To me they are the two best in that weight division.”
He’ll be watching on Saturday night and roaring on Conlan as he fights to leave the bad memories of Rio behind him. Once and for all.
