BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Irish boxer Michael Conlan, who famously gestured at 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games judges with his middle fingers, said he plans to retire without achieving his dream of becoming a world champion.
The 34-year-old Belfast featherweight lost a 10-round split decision to the undefeated Kevin Walsh at the SSE Arena on Friday night.
Conlan, the favorite, had hoped a victory would get him a shot at WBC featherweight champion Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington.
“I want to walk away now, my health intact, my family good. I’ve done really well in boxing,” a bruised Conlan told reporters with his wife and two children seated next to him.
“I’ve achieved an awful lot. Did I reach my goal of being a world champion? No. That’s the hardest part about it all.”
One judge scored the bout 97-93 for Conlan (20-4), and the two others scored it 96-94 for Walsh (20-0), a native of Brockton — the same Massachusetts city that produced Rocky Marciano and Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
“I always said the next defeat — no matter the situation or no matter the circumstances — that would be me finished with boxing, and it has come,” Conlan said.
“I thought I won, but listen it is what it is. I don’t want to do it no more. It’s time to say goodbye to boxing.”
Conlan fought for the IBF world featherweight title in 2023, losing to Luis Alberto Lopez in a fifth-round stoppage.
Conlan won a bronze medal for Ireland at the 2012 London Olympics and became an amateur world champion three years later but made bigger headlines at the 2016 Rio Games, where he lost on a controversial split decision in a bantamweight quarterfinal to Russian Vladimir Nikitin.
Conlan went on an expletive-laden rant on live television after the loss, including raising his middle fingers as he faced the judges.
In 2021, an investigator appointed by the International Boxing Association found that medal bouts in boxing at the 2016 Games were fixed by “complicit and compliant” referees and judges. The report didn’t offer a verdict on whether the result of the Conlan-Nikitin fight was fixed.
In the pro ranks, Conlan beat Nikitin by unanimous decision in 2019.
“I’ve done really well but I’ve never achieved the goal of being a world champion,” Conlan said Saturday. “There is relief. Now I get to spend time with my family …
“It’s just not meant to be, and that’s it.”