Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images
With the future of Olympic boxing in danger because the sport has become so corrupt, Mick Conlan has become its most unlikely advocate. After all, the Irish junior featherweight and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist’s most famous moment was when he gave the middle finger to the judges that robbed him against Russian Vladimir Nikitin, and said in a postfight interview that “AIBA are cheats,” “my dream’s been shattered” and “amateur boxing stinks from the core up.”
But while you can’t turn on ESPN without a former college athlete calling for the death of the NCAA’s “shamateurism” or college football players bailing on their team’s bowl games in favor of NFL draft preparation, Mick Conlan is desperate to save Olympic boxing.