World Title Fight in Ireland for the WInner – Eddie Hearn Raises the Crocker-Donovan Stakes
The stakes continue to rise!
With a World title shot on the line, it was already known that there is more than Irish pride on the line when Lewis Crocker and Paddy Donovan meet on the top of the Point of Pride bill.
However, the prize continues to get bigger, as Eddie Hearn reveals the victor of the SSE hosted main event will most likely get a vacant world title fight and thus should have home advantage when challenging for the IBF world title.
One of the most eagerly anticipated all-Irish fights in recent history doubles up as an IBF world title eliminator. Whomever has their hand raised in Belfast on Saturday night will be mandatory for title holder Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.
The promoter of Saturday’s event is confident Ennis will move up to light middleweight, vacate the title and open to the door to a vacant shot for the victorious Irish fighter. If it does play out like the Essex fight maker predicts, he believes either the Belfast or Limerick fighter will have home advantage when they challenge for the strap.
“So, when Boots fights Stanionis, the winner will receive a letter to say you have to fight Paddy Donovan or Lewis Crocker, whoever wins,” Hearn explains when speaking to Boxingscene.
“And it’s very likely that Boots will choose not to fight that person because he will move to 154, or he will ask for an exemption to fight another champion, which will probably be granted. But then, after that, there will be no exemptions, and it’s very likely that the winner of this fight will fight for a vacant title. And when you look at the rankings, it’s very likely that it will be a fight that you can bring to Ireland.
“If it’s Crocker, it’s very likely that he could be fighting for the world title at the Odyssey, the world welterweight championship. That’s a massive title to win. And if it’s Paddy, there’s a good chance we could bring a big fight to the south of Ireland and try something wild down there, and he could be fighting for the world welterweight championship.”
In keeping with the quick leaps up the ladder theme, Hearn points out that winning a world title at welterweight puts you in the frame for some of the biggest names in boxing.
“If you win that belt, you put yourself in position for [Devon] Haney, [Ryan] Garcia, Teofimo [Lopez], all of the life-changing fights, so it’s going to be really interesting to see what happens,” he adds before revealing interest in the bout was bigger than expected.
“It is a fight that has captured the imagination and 8,000 fans will pack the venue on fight night. Donovan-Crocker are not yet established stars, but the chemistry they’ve created and the energy behind the fight is palpable.
“We started a conversation with the arena to have 4,000 people and those tickets when quickly sand they said we couldn’t do more. Thank you so much to the arena who have continuously pushed the boundaries so we’re now just under 8,000 full capacity, there’s less than 200 tickets left and I said to every fighter on this stage, you are going to absolutely love Saturday night, we’re going to give you a wild bight and thank you to everyone from Belfast for continuously turning up and supporting your fighters, let’s have a brilliant night on Saturday night.”
