The Olympian Emmet Brennan Pro Boxing Career Hits A Wall

The Olympian Emmet Brennan just found out how cruel boxing can be both inside and outside the ring. With the collapse of the Conlan Boxing and McEleney Promotions fight card, set for the RDS and September 16 — his second professional fight has collapses.

The Olympian tweeted on his X timeline, a post mentioning, “this event has been canceled. The event organizers have been in touch to let us know that the show on 16 September 2023 has been canceled. We’ve already issued a refund for your booking, so you don’t need to do a thing. You’ll see a credit onto the method of payment you used within 3-5 working days,” said a notice that had been put out by Conlan Boxing, McEleney Promotions and RDS Arena

The cancelation of his Dublin debut, which comes a week after a September 23 National Stadium card was postponed, was massively frustrating for the super middleweight prospect.

“If pro boxing is to survive and thrive outside of Belfast in Ireland the events of recent weeks can NEVER happen again,” said Emmet Brennan.

Speaking online, he revealed the extremely late cancelation hit him and his supporters, particularly those who were travelling from abroad, in the pocket.

The Dublin Docklands graduate was personally down up to eight thousand euros and had people coming from as far afield as Sweden to see him fight.

The lack of a fight also slows his career progression somewhat and he surmises it may affect ticket sales in the future.

Cancellations are too common in Irish boxing, he points out the damage done to the sport as a whole is bigger. A warm summer may have turned people away from the idea of doing events indoors but, its unclear what hurt the lack of interest in the event,”

“I personally still haven’t been given the exact reason why the show has been canceled and who is at fault or how supporters can get there ticket money back. In order for this sport to grow there needs to be some sort of meeting between everyone involved in professional boxing on this island to ensure that this doesn’t happen again,” Brenan said on his social media post.

Brenan turned professional in July 2023 and has a record of 1-0-0. His only professional fight to date was a unanimous decision victory over Michael Delaney in Belfast. 

“Boxers taking the brunt of it, boxers losing out on money and the sport worsening it’s already damaged reputation is unacceptable and stopping this sport from growing on the island. It would be impossible for corporate sponsors and TV to invest and help the sport grow at this moment. On top of this supporters losing out on flight and hotel costs in unacceptable and could further damage future ticket sales  Lastly, although I’m down a lot of money, time and effort it doesn’t affect me too much as I’ve had a great camp, and I’m starting to sharpen up again, this isn’t a personal attack at anyone, but it needs to be sorted and never happen again,” said Emmet Brennan on his Instagram post.

Brennan’s amateur career saw a number of setbacks due to injuries. He had to withdraw from the 2019 European Championships due to a shoulder injury, and he also missed out on the 2021 World Championships due to a hand injury.

—Joseph Hammond contributed to this story.