Last Saturday night at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Olympian Michael Conlan blew away Karim Guerfi in a single round.
The win was a big return after he suffered a shocking knockout loss to WBA "regular" featherweight champion Leigh Wood earlier this year.
Also on Saturday, Luis Alberto Lopez captured the IBF featherweight title with a twelve round decision over Josh Warrington.
Conlan and Lopez are stablemates under Top Rank.
There is also the possibility of facing Isaac Dogboe for a vacant world title. Dogboe is also promoted by Top Rank.
Whatever is it, Conlan is only interested in taking part in a major fight during St Patrick’s Day either in Ireland or New York City.
“That (Dogboe) could be the fight and fantastic but whatever, it’s got to be a fight that warrants a world title. On St Patrick’s Day, it needs to be a huge fight no matter who it is," Conlan told the Belfast Telegraph. “Hopefully next year I’m a world champion, but I’ve been saying that for three years! I’ll keep going and keep rolling the dice.
“I just want to win and fight for a world title as soon as possible. I was happy to win in that fashion. If I were to go nine or 10 rounds with Karim Guerfi, people would ask if I was worthy of a world title fight, but I got that out of the way and people might now think if I can do it against a better opponent.
“March was a massive learning curve. I had a world title in my grasp and let it slip away with a minute and-a-half to go but it’s made me a much better fighter. People wanted a better opponent than Guerfi and I wanted better but there was nobody who wanted it who was available. It was still a test and I handled it well.”
