Conor McKeown

So that was something of a homecoming for him.

When was that?

Last year.

Big crowd?

Big-ish, but not what it should have been and not what it would have been if he'd maybe fulfilled his potential as a pro.

I wonder what he'll think in the fullness of time.

It's probably a world-class amateur not winning a world title is fundamentally not the objective, needless to say.

But it's not as if he had an awful professional career.

He boxed really well at times.

It just wasn't in the cards for him.

Like, there are small elemental things as well, which aren't his fault.

Like, there used to be a time where boxing obviously was on RTE and we were watching Bernard Dunn world title fights after a Six Nations match or whatever.

And then equally on Sky Sports, like, you'd be watching the Saturday Night Football and you'd be told...

up next you know Michael Cohen fights for the world title it was on DAZN like the Lee Wood fight it's true so you're not gonna you're gonna download an app and there's no alerts on your mainstream viewing I didn't deliver I never had a point where I said well I'm exactly I'm finished with this guy yeah but I just he just almost didn't come across my radar very easily hmm

That's it, but that's not unique to him either.

No, sure.

Boxing coincided with the MTK thing.

Yes, it did.

But I just think you probably, if you were home alone on a Saturday evening and Michael Conlon's about to fight for a world title, you would have watched it.

You wouldn't have changed the channel.