Conor McGregor's coach John Kavanagh has unleashed a lengthy defence of Michael Conlan after renowned journalist Kevin Iole, who writes about both MMA and boxing, questioned the legitimacy of the hype surrounding the Belfast man.
On Friday night, Conlan took three rounds to be rid of unheralded American Tim Ibarra, struggling to find his range early before closing the gap with his feet in the third and stopping Ibarra with relative aplomb.
His professional debut sold out Madison Square Garden's 'Theater', with over 5,100 fans - the majority of them having traversed the Atlantic to watch their man - packed into the famed venue, creating raucous noise in the process.
Iole, however, wasn't overly impressed about Conlan's performance - which the fighter himself later graded an 'F', even if it was more of a C2-type display. He tweeted:
My honest take: OK performance, but certainly not like watching a @FloydMayweather debut when you knew he'd be a big star.
Conlan had nothing coming back at him. Wouldn't expect him to fight a star in his debut, but I suggest tempering expectations.
I think Conlan has a chance to be a good pro, and perhaps a very good pro. But I'll reserve judgment until I see more.
None of these valid criticisms drew the ire of John Kavanagh, however. It was later, when Iole tweeted this, that Kavanagh felt compelled to defend a Conlan.
I wrote this in my column, but I think this is the biggest push in the US any Olympian has gotten since @OscarDeLaHoya in 1992
— Kevin Iole (@KevinI) March 18, 2017
SBG head honcho Kavanagh knows Conlan well from their mixed circles, with the Falls Road man having recommended fellow amateur standout Conor Wallace for sparring with Conor McGregor ahead of his rematch with Nate Diaz. Conlan and McGregor, of course, reconvened at the weekend.
Kavanagh prefaced his Facebook post about Conlan and 'hype' by stating that "Kevin Iole is a fine writer," and that he enjoys the boxing-slash-MMA scribe's work. He then explained that Iole's tweet seemed to imply that "the hype behind michael, the push he's getting is from the outside and not something he himself grafted for, engineered, demanded, worked for."
You can read his full thoughts, and those of Rocky Balboa, below.
