– Niall Kelly reports from Riocentro, Rio de Janeiro

MICHAEL CONLAN DIDN’T come looking for a war.

You don’t have enough control in a war. You don’t see the stray elbows coming before they catch you, or your opponent’s head coming in too close.

Anyway, there’ll be plenty of time for wars over the next few days.

So despite getting his second Olympic campaign off to a winning start — comfortably, according to the unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecards — Conlan was disappointed with how he boxed against Armenia’s Aram Avagyan on Sunday.

“It was probably one of my worst performances in recent times,” the reigning bantamweight world champion and top seed said afterwards.

“I wanted to outbox him today. I got dragged into a war which was pretty stupid by me but I knew I could outfight him. I knew I could outbox him when I needed to.

My head said outbox him, my legs said fight him, so I had to just go with the legs instead of the head this time.

Before the gathered media had a chance to put their questions to him, Conlan had one of his own: was his face showing any signs of damage from the punches Avagyan had landed?

It was in Lithuania in May that an accidental clash of heads opened up a deep cut above his right eye. That same eye was bruised again now, but with no evidence of lasting damage.

“I’ve put pictures up on Twitter (of the cuts) which was probably stupid to be going on about them,” he said.

It is what it is. I got dragged into a war. I probably would have liked to outbox him and won a bit easier but I got the win. It’s the first fight of the Olympic Games and onwards and upwards from here.

Of greater concern, perhaps, were the heavy legs that saw him get sucked into a brawl, especially in the final round. Tomorrow will mark four full weeks since Conlan arrived out in Brazil — a long and testing wait, he says — and the final tune-up for Rio hasn’t always gone according to plan.

“I felt tired. I didn’t have the best of camps. My training camp wasn’t the best in Rio, I just didn’t feel as sharp as I usually do.

“But things like this happen with me. (I had) two weeks training for the Commonwealth Games, two weeks training for Europeans, and I still go and win gold.

“It’s not a problem for me. It’s probably a thing that’s meant to happen.”

Speaking of things that are meant to happen, Conlan remains every bit as confident that he can deliver gold for Ireland.

The birth of his daughter Luisne last year has given him renewed focus. As he prepared to walk out into the Riocentro arena on Sunday, the cameras picked her out in the crowd and flashed her picture up on the big screen. For a second, Conlan forgot about the enormity of the task ahead of him and smiled.

“Everyone wants a picture with her. Chinese men are lifting her and asking can they get a picture with her, Brazilians are talking Brazilian to her.

They all think she’s the most amazing thing they’ve ever seen. I don’t know if it’s because she’s a ghost white wee baby, I don’t know.”

Vladimir Nikitin is up next on Tuesday with a guaranteed medal and a place in the semi-finals on the line. The Russian came out on top when they met not long after Conlan made the step up to bantamweight, but this is a fight that the Belfast boxer wanted.

He quotes the Law of Attraction. “I said to Steven Donnelly two days before the draw when we were out running around the Village, I’d like to fight Armenia in my first fight and then I’d like to fight Nikitin next.

That’s what’s happened, I’ve attracted them to me, and I’ll beat both of them.

A win for Katie Taylor later today, and for Conlan on Tuesday, would guarantee two Irish medals in the ring and go a long way towards lifting the cloud that has been hanging over the team after a torrid start in Rio.

“It’s an individual sport so it doesn’t really bother me,” Conlan said when asked if the circumstances have put even more pressure on him.

I was more gutted for Paddy (Barnes) because he’s my best friend. He lives a 10-minute walk away from me, we live more or less in the same cul de sac, and we’re more like family than anything. To see him lose was heartbreaking for me because I wanted us to win gold together.

“I still believe I’m going to win gold. Seeing the lads lose, I’m gutted for them, but I’m here to do a job.

“I’ve been the big hope before I came so there’s no pressure on my shoulders with people saying I’m the big hope now. It was the same thing before I got on the plane.”

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