Months after Michael Conlan publicly apologized for a pro-IRA themed ring entrance from earlier this year, Bob Arum was forced to walk back comments suggesting his fighter do it all over again.

The 88-year old Hall of Fame promoter landed in the hot seat following ignorant comments made in press row following in-ring action at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Belfast’s Conlan (13-0, 7KOs) opened up the ESPN-televised tripleheader, scoring a unanimous decision over Russia’s Vladimir Nikitin in a “rematch” to their controversial meeting in the quarterfinal round of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Conlan—a two-time Olympian and 2012 Olympic Gold medalist—claimed his third win of 2019, a campaign which included his third straight headlining appearance at MSG’s Hulu Theater on St. Patrick’s Day, a tradition which began with his pro debut in 2017. This year’s event was met with stark criticism, as Conlan entered the ring to the backdrop of Wolfe Tone’s ‘Celtic Symphony’ which includes the line ‘Ooh ah, up the RA’ in the chorus. The phrase references support of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), dating back to decades-long The Troubles violent conflict between unionists and nationalists, which claimed more than 3,500 lives.

The controversial hook was picked up by overenthusiastic supporters in the crowd, which Conlan tuned out as he was focused on his fight, in which he claimed a points win over Mexico’s Ruben Garcia. The 10th win of his professional career took a distant second to the outpouring of criticism over the inappropriate pre-fight celebration, which critics correctly identified as being grossly insensitive to victims of IRA terrorism.

“I misjudged the reaction and to the people I offended, I definitely apologize.” Conlan said at the time. “I wasn’t listening to what anyone was singing—I was focused on my opponent and doing my job.”

In discussing Top Rank’s plans to stage a St. Patrick’s Day 2020 event at Hulu Theater, Arum was far less sensitive to the public reaction—to the point of suggesting more of the same would come.

“It’s a Tuesday evening next year, the whole place will be green,” Arum told press row reporters on Saturday. “We’ll play maybe an IRA song to get everybody excited back in Ireland. You know, screw them.

“I just get a kick out of it, because he got criticized for coming out to an IRA song. It wasn’t in Hebrew, so I didn’t understand it.”

The general public certainly didn’t understand why the promoter would make light of the situation which had already made the media rounds for all the wrong reasons. The matter wasn’t swept under the rug this time, not even by MTK Global, the management company whom represents Conlan and literally hundreds of other boxers, including Top Rank clients Carl Frampton and Tyson Fury.

A weekend’s worth of negative reaction clearly resonated with the management outfit and the Hall of Fame promoter, the latter whom was made to see the error of his ways.

“I wish to apologize for any offense caused by my comments in an interview I gave on Saturday night,” Arum declared in a joint statement released by MTK. “I was making a joke but what I said was spur-of-the-moment, ill-informed and ill-advised. I have no excuses but as anyone who knows me will tell you, there was nothing malicious whatsoever intended.

“I am proud to represent great fighters such as Michael Conlan and Carl Frampton and I look forward to promoting more shows with our colleagues at MTK Global in the proud city of Belfast. Boxing is a sport of hope that brings people together and together, we will strive to facilitate that wherever and whenever possible.”

MTK personnel also weighed in.

“What Bob said was unfortunate and I understand the hurt and the anger in reaction to it,” said Jamie Conlan, Michael’s older brother and a former boxer who now serves as a professional development coordinator for MTK. “What I can say is that having spent lots of time with Bob, I can assure people it was not his intention to hurt or anger anyone.

“While anyone associated with Belfast or knowing its history would want to distance themselves from such comments, we know they were out of character and Bob’s swift apology is a welcome one.”

More to the point was an athlete whose next title fight could take place in Belfast.

“While Bob’s comments were offensive, I feel they were made out of a lack of knowledge regarding the complexities of our country,” noted Frampton, a former two-division champion who is tentatively slated to face 130-pound titlist Jamel Herring next spring in his Belfast hometown. “I do not believe they were malicious in nature.

“Boxing has always been a sport that has helped unite our people and divisive statements should be kept away from it.”

As for the younger Conlan, empathy was offered in atoning the Hall of Fame promoter of his latest sins.

“I can understand how Bob’s comments have caused offense,” noted Conlan. “However, I don’t think there was any malice behind what he said. While I don’t believe he meant to cause any harm, I welcome his apology.

“Boxing is a sport that unites and welcomes all walks of life on an even playing field and I’m looking forward to seeing Top Rank and MTK Global doing that this year in Belfast with two major shows planned for the summer.”

Conlan's latest win—which helped forever put behind him the controversial Olympics setback from three years ago—came in supporting capacity to unbeaten welterweight titlist Terence Crawford's 9th round stoppage of Egidijus Kavaliauskas.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox