Michael Conlan realizes his financial situation is more stable than many boxers.
The Belfast native is thankful that he’ll be able to withstand missing out on “big money” for headlining a card Tuesday night in New York. The undefeated featherweight contender is worried, however, that less fortunate fighters will be devastated by the financial impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the entire sport.
The 28-year-old Conlan (13-0, 7 KOs) was supposed to box Colombia’s Belmar Preciado (20-2-1, 13 KOs) on Tuesday night in the 10-round main event of a St. Patrick’s Day card at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater. The entire card was canceled March 12 due to coronavirus concerns.
Conlan expressed concern for his fellow fighters during an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, which was posted to its website Thursday.
“I was in the middle of an interview when Jamie told me that the fight was off, and I was just gutted,” Conlan said, referring to his brother, Jamie Conlan, who’s also Michael’s manager. “I had got my mind ready for the fact that I would be fighting behind closed doors in The Garden on St. Patrick’s Day, and how that would still be a very big deal. So, it did hit me hard when it was canceled, but I’m not going to cry over it because I know there are people much worse off than me.”
Conlan can’t help but worry what will happen to boxers who were scheduled to compete on his undercard, fighters who were contracted to make much less money than him.
“The majority of fighters are living from one paycheck to the next, so if they don’t fight, they don’t get paid, and that is devastating,” Conlan said. “Now we really don’t know when boxing will be on again, and I fear that some boxers could end up homeless because they can’t afford to pay the mortgage or the rent and all the other bills they have.
“Everyone on that New York card would have been training for a long time, but because it’s canceled none of them got paid. This the way professional boxing is, and a lot of fighters are going to hit hard times because of this deadly virus.”
The 2016 Olympian suggested that boxing’s most prominent promoters, Bob Arum included, should help boxers survive while the sport is shut down.
“I know that this is a mercenary sport,” said Conlan, who is the WBO’s number one contender for its 126-pound champion, Shakur Stevenson. “It’s a brutal business, but I feel that some of the top promoters could look at what they could do for fighters to help them get through the next three months or so. Even my own promoters, Top Rank, could maybe give their fighters who need it something like $2,000 a month, to help guys survive. And the same could go for the big promoters in the UK. It would be a great gesture.
“I know the promoters will say that they’re not making money because there are no shows, and no TV revenue. But I’m sure they could help in some way until we are through the worst of this crisis.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.