Michael Conlan’s opening bout at the Rio Olympics couldn’t have gone much better.
The Belfast boxer breezed past Armenia’s Aram Avagyan to earn a unanimous decision on Sunday afternoon, and he’s now one win away from securing a medal.
A dominant performance saw Conlan win the fight by unanimous decision. The Armenian tried to sucker him into a brawl, but Conlan was very comfortable standing toe-to-toe with his opponent, teeing off with punches to the body while managing to dodge most of the wild haymakers that were thrown his way.
All three judges gave the first two rounds to Conlan, while two of the judges had him losing the third. (29-28, 29-28, 30-27).
With the rest of the boxing team already out of the games, Conlan and Katie Taylor remain the only Irish pugilists with a chance of winning a medal in Rio.
Conlan now faces either Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin or Chatchai Budtee of Thailand in the quarter-finals on Tuesday. Should he win that, he will at least equal his bronze medal-winning performance in London four years ago.
