Connor Coyle plans on 'making a statement' at Conlan Boxing homecoming fight

The 2010 Commonwealth Games medallist will duck between the ropes on home soil for the first time since February 2017 as he looks to extend his perfect professional record on a bumper bill which will be televised live on ESPN.

Coyle's previous 11 fights have taken place in either Mexico or the USA and he's excited to finally return to home shores on the undercard of Lewis Crocker's WBO European welterweight title defence at the Belfast venue.

The 31 year-old Jim McLoughlin trained boxer is currently finishing off his training camp with two weeks' sparring in Marbella and he expects to be mixing it with the division's top rated fighters in the coming months.

Firstly he's determined to make an impression in front of the TV cameras next month before securing another fight this side of Christmas.

"It's some spot here in Marbella and I wouldn't mind doing a full training camp over here in the future but I'm looking forward to getting into a sparring cycle for two weeks. I'll travel around these gyms and a few of the MTK gyms in Marbella and get myself ready.

"We're talking to some big names so things will happen," he insisted. "Things will progress and big fights will pan out over the next six months and I'll be ready for them.

"So I'll just keep ticking over in the meantime. I'll get this fight on November 5th, blow away whoever I step in the ring with and make a statement and just continue on from there. I'll try and push for another fight in December."

The former St Joseph's ABC clubman was approached to fight WBA interim middleweight champion Chris Eubank Jr (30-2-0) at just six weeks' notice earlier this month. Advised to knock back the Englishman's advances by his management team at the time, Coyle is hoping the fight can be made when he has a full training camp behind him and insists he will 'hound' Eubank until he gets his shot.

Eubank made light work of his latest opponent with a fifth-round stoppage win over Wanik Awdijan at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle on Saturday night forcing the German to withdraw after a barrage of body shots took their toll.

Afterwards Eubank called for a major all-British fight in December en route to a world title fight, with a rematch against Billy Joe Saunders and a clash with Welshman Liam Williams mentioned but Coyle hopes he can persuade the big hitting middleweight to give him a shot.

"I'm going to hound Chris Eubank until he fights me because it's a fight I want," he claimed. "It's a fight I know I can win and a fight that's going to put me in the mix with the top level of fighters."

For now, Coyle is concentrating on his November 5th return and while it's the closest he's fought to his native Derry since turning pro, he's disappointed tickets for the event were sold out before his fight was announced.

"I'll have this fight on November 5th so three weeks from now and I'm really looking forward to it, especially as it's very close to home in Belfast. So we couldn't get any closer to home.

"I've always had people asking when I'll be fighting closer to home but we never really got announcing the fight on time for fans in Derry to buy tickets so it's a bit disappointing but what can you do? At least I'm getting a fight now and it'll be televised on ESPN so they'll still be able to tune in and watch it.

"People weren't able to travel to America or Mexico to watch most of my fights but I'll get more fights at home now."

Conlan Boxing, fronted by former world title challenger Jamie Conlan and world title hopeful Michael Conlan, have teamed up with Top Rank and ESPN for the event which also features Padraig McCrory (12-0) who defends his WBC International Silver super-middleweight title and Sean McComb (12-1).

Jamie Conlan claims Conlan Boxing Promotions intend to give Irish fighters the opportunity to progress their careers.

"Conlan Boxing will primarily be focused on managing fighters and our aim is to have a niche stable of fighters that we believe in building for the future but also with promoting shows we aim to create a stable state of Irish boxing giving fighters opportunities to grow and develop."

Michael Conlan, Director of Conlan Boxing added: “I'm looking forward to bringing our second show to Belfast. I’m very excited to see the next wave of Belfast talent coming through and delighted to be playing a part in giving friends and former teammates opportunities to showcase their talents, live on ESPN+.”