Commonwealth Games boxing: Michael Conlan survives scare

BANTAMWEIGHT gold medal favourite Michael Conlan survived a scare as the Commonwealth Games boxing tournament got off to a dramatic start at the SECC this afternoon.

Michael Conlan of Northern Ireland, left, fights Matthew Martin from Nauru. Picture: AP

Northern Ireland’s Conlan, who won a bronze medal for the all Ireland team at the London 2012 Olympics, suffered a cut above his left eye in a clash of heads with his Nauru opponent Mathew Martin at the end of the second round.

The contest could arguably have been halted before Conlan suffered the accidental damage, referee Rovshan Huseynov stopping the action twice to administer standing counts to Martin who was on the receiving end of some hurtful and accurate punching from the Belfast man.

Conlan had to box on the back foot in the final round to avoid any further damage and eased his way to a unanimous points win.

It was one of only two bantamweight contests on day one with the second fight seeing Benson Njangiru of Kenya, a silver medallist in Delhi four years ago, convincingly defeating Guyana’s Imran Khan on the scorecards of all three judges.

Joe Ham of Glasgow competes for Scotland in the bantamweight division and has received a bye into the next round where he will face Nadir Nadir of Pakistan on Monday.

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