Jamie Conlan's career is a running gag in Irish and British boxing circles.
His undeniable talent and 19-straight victories have propelled him to number two in the WBO's world rankings. As such, the Commonwealth champion, older brother of former Irish amateur star Michael Conlan, stands on the precipice of a world title eliminator later this year.
But the Falls Road super-flyweight has a propensity for winning fights the hard way; his 2015 war with Junior Granados at Dublin's National Stadium was one of the finest to ever grace our shores, and his humdinger with Anthony Nelson in England last year was voted British Fight Of The Year for 2016.
Both back-and-forth encounters saw Conlan forced to pick himself up off the canvas to win, and last night saw the undefeated 30-year-old contender once more break out his most unwanted party piece.
I wouldn't like to see @JamieConlan11 bathroom after he's had a shave. Another blood bath, another war, another win! Well done fella
— Carl Frampton MBE (@RealCFrampton) March 11, 2017
Conlan would eventually overcome teak tough Nicaraguan Yader Cardoza via split decision, but was downed hard in the eighth round (incidentally, this writer had seen Conlan coast through the first seven rounds to the point that he felt confident enough to boil the kettle between 7 and 8; he should have known better considering who he was watching).
Another blood-and-thunder finish saw Conlan once again live up to his 'Irish Gatti' nickname, bestowed upon him by Belfast boxing writer Paul Gibson after the Nelson fight last year.
Prior to the contest, BoxNation pundit Steve Lillis said of Conlan, 'Jamie could look in a mirror and come out with a black eye'. At Belfast's Waterfront Hall last night, the former three-time Four Nations gold medallist emerged with two of them - this despite warnings from his brother not to show up in New York next week looking like a delinquent.
Missed the last three round as my stream cut off, laptop almost got smashed 🙈 well done @JamieConlan11 but please stop doing that to me 😵😵
— Michael Conlan (@mickconlan11) March 11, 2017
On Monday, the elder Conlan jets out to support his brother ahead of the latter's professional bow at Madison Square Garden. Initially it seemed likely that Jamie would fight on Mick's undercard on Paddy's Day, but Jamie instead opted to stay off the MSG event so as to not provide his younger sibling with any distractions ahead of one of the most important nights of his boxing career. Based on last night's events, it was probably just as well.
'The Mexican' reacted to his split decision victory and looked ahead to New York with Kugan Cassius of IFL TV immediately following his headline clash in Belfast.
Explaining why it was just as well he wasn't on Mick's card, Conlan told IFL:
You picture if I was on before him and he was in the changing room.
Listen, every fight is going to be, to an extent, a 'big drama show', as Triple G [Gennady Golovkin] says - or a 'wee drama show' because we're from Belfast!
But no, you wouldn't want [Mick] to have to go out after that there.
I know our Michael - he probably would have run out of the changing room and tried to jump in the ring if stuff like that happened. Maybe we should never be on the same bill together!
We can't do that every week, or every fight. I've said that before. But no matter how many times I go down, I always get fucking back up. You can either slate it or you can love it.
Conlan also revealed how his trainer Danny Vaughan and team had bought him a nice pair of Prada sunglasses which he'd now be forced to wear 'like a dickhead' around snowy New York next week, in order to hide the obligatory facial damage he suffered at the fists of Cardoza last night.
He's certainly value for money, but he'll have a lot of explaining to do walking through security at JFK on Monday evening.
You can listen to Jamie's appearance on The Irish Boxing Show from Wednesday below.
