Michael Conlan: Superstition is for the weak-minded

Luck's got nothing to do with it.

If you're good enough, if you want something enough, just go out and bloody get it. Don't make excuses, don't blame anybody else. Reflection is the better part of a champion and the best of them not only know their own worth, but they prove their worth. Michael Conlan is a man on a mission and he's not going to let some superstition slow him down. You see it in every sport, athletes going through a tried and trusted routine, people wearing certain colour underwear, footballers afraid to leave the dressing room before everyone else does. There are rituals and traditions upheld all over the world mostly because sports stars are terrified that they might be cursed if they don't follow them to the letter. Michael Conlan's thoughts on the matter are a lot more simple.

"Superstition's for the weak-minded."

Typically confident, typically strong. Speaking ahead of his throw-down with Kenny Guzman on Friday night, the Belfast boxer told Irish combat sports podcast Obviously Fight Talk about his plans to continue on the same trajectory that's turning heads all over the world. He's got the talent, sure. But you need more than that nowadays and Conlan is certainly willing to do what it takes. Asked by Obviously Fight Talk if he was going for the Apollo Creed effect during his St. Patrick's Day debut against Tim Ibarra, Conlan spoke with fearless honesty.

"That was my aim," he said. "That’s what I looked at. I saw Apollo come out against Ivan Drago in Rocky 4, and I was like ‘I have to do something like this’. It was something I wanted to do and always planned to do. I was bloody planning my walk out since the day I turned pro. "I had an awful lot of time when I turned pro. It was back in September and then I didn't fight until March. It was unbelievable and, when I see the reaction and the love it got, it makes it all worth it in the end."

Conlan then went one better when he explained the need to be a showman.

"Definitely – 100% [I will continue to entertain]." he told hosts Robert Pallin and Noel O'Keeffe. "I feel that’s a major part of pro boxing. You need to entertain people. And I feel like the walk-outs and stuff all add to it. Dressing up, how you're coming out, how you're looking - like Prince Naseem and stuff, that's stuff I remembered when I was a kid, that gets remembered, that type of stuff. "I think, with my ability, if I can add the showmanship, it will all add up to make the full article."

On Friday in Tucson, Conlan goes for a fourth pro victory against American Kenny Guzman who also boasts an undefeated record. Not that the Irish man gives a toss.

"I’ve only seen like a 40-second clip of him, so I don’t really know much about him," he said. "I know he’s undefeated. I know he’s going to come to win. I don’t care. I honestly don’t care what he plans to do, or what he wants to do, or what his record is. I’m going in there to do my job, and as you say: I’m not getting paid for overtime, so I’ll always aim for the KO."

Watch the full interview from 21:13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skk7esrTfCg&feature=youtu.be&t=1273 Via: Obviously Fight Talk.