In front of a sold-out crowd of 5,102 at The Theater at Madison Square Garden, Michael Conlan won his first pro fight with a third round stoppage of Tim Ibarra.
The 25-year-old came into the fight in confident mood, saying he had seen fear in his Ibarra's eyes and that he was going to KO his American opponent.
In his post-fight interview, Conlan said he would have preferred a cleaner victory. He also graded himself with a F for his overall performance. In truth, a C would probably be a fairer assessment.
I’m giving myself a F, I don’t think I performed too well, but I still got the TKO.
There were a lot of nerves tonight and it was my professional debut, it was nerve-wracking but I think I handled it the pressure well enough for a first professional fight, I do believe I’ll be Ireland’s greatest professional fighter and a three-weight world champion.
Conlan opened the fight looking for the knockout punch - it didn't come. But, with 1:59 elapsed in the third round, the pressure from Conlan became too much for Ibarra and the referee stepped in to stop the fight.
