Conor Quinn says sky is limit after already winning the biggest fight of his life
Conor Quinn has already won the biggest fight of his life outside boxing so anything the unbeaten flyweight does inside the ring is a bonus.
Quinn tops the bill tonight at the SSE Arena as part of Frank Warren’s Belfast Brawl card as he faces Yorkshire’s Conner Kesall for the vacant Commonwealth title.
The 26-year-old from Clonard has nine wins and a draw since turning professional but due to a health problem was told he’d never be allowed to box again.
“It has been a very long journey, whenever I returned home from Australia, I was in the process of getting my professional boxing licence here in Belfast and they found an issue with one of my brain scans which ultimately led to them finding a hole in my heart, and I had to undergo surgery on my heart to get that fixed,” Quinn said.
“It was during Covid and with the wait times in the hospitals it was a long period, but he we are now and ready to kick on.
“My initial thought was I’m going to beat it; boxing is my whole life and always has been. Since I was six years old all I have done is box.
“When I was told at the start, I said to myself I’ll go and get this sorted out and if they are not going to help me I’ll help myself.
“As time goes on and days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months, months turn into years, you start to doubt yourself at the darker times, but I always sort of stayed positive and knew I was going to get over it in the end.
“I remember when I was returning to the professional ring, I said to myself the hardest fight of my career was being told that I’d never box again and getting over that, so everything now is a bonus and it is a privilege to be able to fight in these big arenas and be live on TV,” added Quinn.
“I never had any doubts about my health, I just thought that it was something picked up that was more unknown.
“I’ve been boxing since I was six years old, I have been sparring since I was six years old, I had 150 amateur fights and I feel 100% healthy and 100% in my own body. I knew it was just that the medical professionals wanted a closer look at rather than something really serious that was going to actually affect my life.”
Quinn started his professional career in Australia before moving back home due to limited opportunities because of the Covid pandemic.
He said: “I was in line to go to the Tokyo Olympics then I broke my hand, so I sort of put myself out of then and I didn’t want to wait around on the next Olympics, I wanted to turn professional and the best offer at the time came from Brisbane Australia.
“Conor Wallace, a lad from Newry, is out there as a pro so I got chatting to him and I made the move over.
“I had one fight in Brisbane and my second fight was in Bangkok Thailand, then Covid hit and they closed the borders in Australia, and I wasn’t able to get any opponents flown in, so that’s when I moved home again.”
One of the highlights of Quinn’s career so far was beating Bryan Castro on points in his native West Belfast.
“When I turned professional I always said the two venues I wanted to fight in were the SSE Arena and the Falls Park,” he added.
“I boxed in the SSE Arena twice last year and I boxed in the Falls Park coming near the end of the summer.
“I have ticked off all those boxes and it was an absolute unbelievable experience, everything has switched; now I want to win major titles and I want to headline shows and that is exactly what we are doing now.”
‘The Magnificent’ is relishing topping the bill tonight.
He added: “I remember the last time I fought in the SSE Arena my manager Mark Dunlop saying to me soak it all up, it is amazing, but it will be a whole different story.
“I sort of brushed it off and laughed at him and here we are today. It just shows how quickly things can progress if you put the work in.”
Quinn is hoping to follow in fellow West Belfast fighter Anthony Cacace’s footsteps and win a world title.
"We're on an absolute high and this show couldn’t come at a better time because Anthony Cacace has brought that spark back to Belfast boxing,” he said.
“Winning a world title in any sport is just an unbelievable achievement and the people of West Belfast particularly love it when it is boxing, so it has got everyone talking about us again, especially being a fellow Queensberry fighter it got everybody interested in the Queensberry news, then the news came that we were fighting in the SSE Arena.
“You can only give thanks to the likes of Anthony Cacace, Carl Frampton and Michael Conlon who have paved the way for the likes of myself to come up.
“I have always had world title aspirations. I’m the type of guy if I wasn’t aiming to go to the top, I wouldn’t be wasting my time or wasting anyone else’s time around me.
“It is one fight at a time and this is the next step on my journey, and the end goal is to be world champion.”
Quinn is making his debut for Queensberry tonight after two-weight world champion Frampton recommended him to the stable.
“You couldn’t ask for a better person to scream your name really,” he said. “Whenever I heard that it was another surreal moment in my career. I have had plenty of them but that was definitely another one.
“Obviously that brought about the signing with Queensberry, which is going to take me to the next level of my boxing career.
“When I signed with Queensberry one of the things I wanted to do was fight in Belfast before the end of the year and here we are in my first show fighting in the SSE Arena so I couldn’t ask for anymore.”