‘Gold’en boy Conan enjoys Florida success

NEWTOWNSTEWART’S Two Castles Olympic Boxing Club youngster, Conan McSorley produced a four fight masterclass in Florida to win the 54kg class at the World of Havoc Championship.

The 16-year-old was part of the Ireland team that travelled to America to compete in the US Boxing sanctioned tier one event as part of the IABA’S World Boxing membership, and he certainly made the most of his opportunity.

The Omagh CBS pupil hit the ground running in Orlando, defeating Florida’s Ethan Frishman unanimously to progress to the quarter-finals where he accounted for another opponent from the host stage, Ernesto Castaneda.

Conan then ousted Luis Athon Velazquez Socarras in the last four before sealing his gold medal success against Josiah McComb, from Indianapolis, in the decider.

And while delighted to have won his gold medal, he admits hard work behind the scenes with Commonwealth Games gold medalist and Paris Olympian, Jude Gallagher, helped him overcome four of the home favourites in Florida.

“It was unreal, such a trip!,” he beamed.

“They were stronger and they had different styles to what they have over here, they’re more flat-footed.

“Me and Jude were working on that a few weeks ago in the club, about how to box the Americans because they all have that flat-footed style and their lead hand is low, so we worked on that and that definitely helped me because they all fought like that.”

Conan has another trip to America to look forward to in a couple of weeks time when he will be part of an Irish Select team to fight alongside two other Tyrone youngsters, Mark Harte from Carrickmore and Aghyaran’s Caoimhin Connolly, in Detroit, Cincinnati and Canada.

Then, after that, there’s another championship in Ireland for selection to the World Junior Championship, which is his ‘main goal’ for the year.

“The main goal [is to qualify for the World Championships], I couldn’t put into words what that would mean, it would be a big dream!,” he added.

Meanwhile, Conan’s club coach, John Gallagher feels the teenager’s success in Florida has a lot to do with his work ethic and dedication, saying: “Conan likes a heavy workload, he enjoys boxing every day, he enjoys training every day and he thrived on that.

“He didn’t get better after each fight he got better in every round he fought.

“He really loves the competitiveness, the physical nature of boxing and the training. He puts a lot into it.”

And the reigning Irish Cadet champion, who won three fights convincingly against three tough opponents to win that title a few months ago, also caught the eye of Ireland team manager, Stephen Connolly, through his performances in Orlando.

“We saw an outstanding young international boxer in Conan McSorley from the Two Castles Boxing Club,” Connolly observed. “He had four outstanding bouts in five days and every bout was with different types of boxers and he came good in all the bouts. I would like to wish him and his club all the best in the years to come.”