It just wasn’t to be.
If the Conlan’s aren’t the most talented family in Ireland they’re god damn close.
Michael Conlan may be the better publicised of the two after his Olympic success and his indignant response to iffy judging at Rio 2016. Jamie is no pushover, however. Before tonight he boasted a not so shabby 19-0 record.
It has been a much longer professional career than his brother’s, spanning back to 2009 but tonight was the biggest night of all. Conlan was fighting for the IBF Super Flyweight title against Filipino boxer Jerwin ‘Pretty Boy’ Ancajas.
At just 25-years-old, Ancajas had racked up 27 wins to date and only had one loss to his name from 2012.
The Philippines boxing star had Conlan down twice, in rounds one and three, and opened a nasty gash above Conlan’s left eye in between. The body shots were doing most of the damage, though, and Conlan was taking a savage beating. It was his bravery and the urging of the Belfast crowd that somehow kept him going.
At the end of the fourth round, he was downed by another thunderous flurry of body-shots. On this occasion, he was saved by the bell but still took a count of nine. He sustained a torrid time of it in the fifth but landed a decent right cross to rouse his supporters. Ancajas was also docked a point after receiving a third warning for illegal blows.
It was all over in the sixth round as Conlan dropped to the canvas again and the referee stepped in to put him out of his misery.
Jerwin Ancajas TKOs Jamie Conlan in the sixth round to retain the IBF junior bantamweight title in Belfast, Ireland #boxing pic.twitter.com/1teJ93zUkc
— Ryan Songalia (@ryansongalia) November 18, 2017
Sometimes in a boxing ring you just have to put your hands up and say you got beat by the better fighter. That is what happened to Conlan but no-one can question the man’s heart.
