{"id":554057,"date":"2026-03-21T02:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T02:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/554057\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T02:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T02:44:10","slug":"michael-conlan-announces-his-retirement-after-kevin-walsh-defeat-its-over-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/554057\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Conlan Announces His Retirement After Kevin Walsh Defeat: \u2018It\u2019s Over For Me\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two-time featherweight world title challenger Michael Conlan has announced his retirement from professional boxing moments after a fourth career defeat to little-known Kevin Walsh last night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Conlan (20-4, 10 KOs) lost a debatable split decision to the undefeated American at the SSE Arena in his hometown of Belfast. It was his first time returning to the arena since he lost to Jordan Gill in December 2024.<\/p>\n

A bruised Conlan spoke to reporters in his dressing room after the fight: \u201cI didn\u2019t think I had lost, but it wasn\u2019t good enough, and that\u2019s the simple fact. I\u2019m 34 now! I thought I had won, but listen, it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conlan had scored 97-93 on one scorecard, but the two other judges gave Walsh the nod at a closer 96-94.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want it no more, and it\u2019s time to say goodbye to boxing,\u201d announced Conlan. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t good enough. No matter if it was close or if people thought I won, I didn\u2019t win clearly enough. For me to be a world champion, I need to be beating guys like that and beating them well, but that was a bit too close for comfort. To go out how I went out, it may be controversial or whatever, but it\u2019s just time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representing Ireland at the London 2012 Olympics, Conlan claimed a bronze medal during an accomplished amateur career, which also saw the Irish superstar claim a gold medal at the 2015 World Amateur Championship in Doha. After turning professional with Bob Arum\u2019s Top Rank at Madison Square Garden in 2017, Conlan struggled to replicate his form in the professional ranks. The Belfast native lost in two world title attempts against Leigh Wood and Luis Alberto Lopez, both by knockout.<\/p>\n

Conlan added: \u201cI always say, \u2018never love the sport, because it will never love you back.\u2019 I am going to walk away now with my health intact, my family good. I\u2019ve done really well in boxing. I reached some serious heights, I\u2019ve done some serious arenas and some serious places around the world. I\u2019ve done things a lot of fighters will never get to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid I reach my goal of becoming a world champion? No. That\u2019s the hardest part of it all, that I didn\u2019t reach my goal. With me being a stubborn person, I want to keep going to do it, but I have missed a lot of my family\u2019s lives. It\u2019s time to go home. My two kids, my daughter turns 11 next week, my son is seven\u2014and I\u2019ve missed probably 60 to 70 percent of their lives because of boxing and training camps. It\u2019s time to move back and time to go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conlan announces his retirement following nine years as a professional at 34 years old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two-time featherweight world title challenger Michael Conlan has announced his retirement from professional boxing moments after a fourth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,74539,85],"class_list":["post-554057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-michael-conlan","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}