Eric Donovan ready for “Phase II”
Eric Donovan [2(1)-0] has served his apprenticeship and is ready to quickly move through six-round fights and in to title contention.
Donovan turned heads last year when, at almost 31 years of age, decided to make the move to the professional game. However, the former Elite amateur has exceeded expectations since the switch and is being moved quicker than expected.
This step up begins at the National Stadium, scene of Donovan’s first two wins, on Saturday February 25th on the Red Corner Promotions ‘Unfinished Business’ card.
While debut opponent Damian Lawniczak was known as a survivor, and second foe Krzysztof Rogowski was known as a rough-house, this time Donovan and his team are looking at more aggressive and dangerous opponents.
‘Lilywhite Lightning’ revealed that “I have started my training camp already but have no opponent confirmed yet. My team are looking at couple of tough Europeans or even a South American for this fight and that will be confirmed in the next couple of weeks.”
“I’ve seen the names of the guys they looking at bringing over and watched a little of them on YouTube. I know I’ll have my hands full so I’m fully focused on February and giving the support another show to remember.”
“My knockout win over Rogowski gave me a real boost and confirmed that I am ready to jump a level to fight six rounders. Not many leap to this level so soon but I’ve served most of my apprenticeship in the amateurs and the World Series of Boxing so I am ready get stuck in.”
The skillful Athy southpaw paid tribute to this support, who once again make the short pilgrimage to the home of Irish boxing to support their man. Donovan noted how “the atmosphere for my first two fights was unbelievable. The crowd gets bigger and bigger and the knockout win last time out really got people talking. That’s given me a real push, boxing can be a lonely game but when you have the support behind you it makes all the long hard days of training that much easier.”
A strong debut year has Donovan confident going in to 2017, and the ambitious Kildare boxer outlined how “this is now ‘Phase II’ of my pro boxing career and I am relishing the challenge already. I want at least four good fights this year, jumping in level each time so that I can get in contention for an Irish title and into the European rankings.”
“I haven’t got time to be messing about and want to get to championship level as soon as I can and give the fans exciting fights that they can talk about for years.”
Tickets for Donovan’s fight are €40 for a gallery seat or €60 ringside, and are available in Athy from The Healthy Living Centre, 2 Duke Street, Athy, Co Kildare, or call Laura on +353867949406.
Photo Credit: Ricardo Guglielminotti – The Fighting Irish (@ThefIrish)
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Joe O’Neill and Gavan Casey look ahead to 2017 in episode 1 of The Irish Boxing Show
