Eric Donovan

Eric Donovan (born 26 July 1985) is an Irish boxer from Athy, County Kildare. His achievements include five Irish Elite titles and a bronze medal at the 2010 European Championships in Moscow, since turning professional he became the first boxer to win the BUI Celtic title inside five fights.

Eric Donovan
Statistics
Nickname(s)Lilywhite Lightning
Weight(s)Featherweight
Lightweight
Height1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
NationalityIrish
Born (1985-07-26) 26 July 1985
Athy, County Kildare, Ireland
Boxing record
Total fights12
Wins12
Wins by KO7
Losses0
Draws0
No contests0
Medal record
Representing  Ireland
European Amateur Championships
2010 Moscow Lightweight
European Union Amateur Championships
2009 Odense Lightweight

Amateur career

Donovan boxed for St. Michael's Boxing Club, Athy where he was trained by Dominic O'Rourke. He debuted as a senior boxer in the Bantamweight division before moving to Featherweight and in 2007 to Lightweight. His first Irish Elite title came in 2004 at bantamweight with a points victory over Brian Gillen in the final. Donovan would go on to win five Irish Elite titles.[1]

In 2004, he competed at the World Youth Championship in Jeju, South Korea, losing in the 'Round of 32' to Hoandry Lomba from Cuba. In 2005, Donovan participated at the World Championships in Mianyang, China. He defeated featherweight Arash Usmanee of Canada on points (31:12), but lost in the second round against Viorel Simion of Romania on points (25:40), which he left and finished 9th overall.[2]

In the 2006 European Championship in Plovdiv he earned a points victory over the strong Turk Yakup Kiliç (33:29), but was defeated in the second round against Alexei Schaidulin from Bulgaria.

In the 2007 World Championships in Chicago, Donovan moved up to compete at Lightweight earning victories over Miklos Varga from Hungary (39:22) and Jonathan Batista from the Dominican Republic (21:4). In the next round he encountered the favored Italian Domenico Valentino, against whom he lost on points (12:29), which gave him a 9th-place finish at this championship.[3]

Donovan earned a points victory over Ross Hickey to clinch the 2009 Irish Lightweight title which earned him a spot on the Irish team at the World Championships in Milan. There he won his first fight against Tajiks Bahodir Karimov on points (13: 4), but lost his next fight against the Indian Jai Bhagwan on points.

European medalist

In March 2010, he defeated reigning world champion Domenico Valentino on points (11: 8), which set him up for the European Championship in Moscow.[4][5] There he defeated Rashid Kassem of Denmark (10: 2) before overcoming Dimitri Bulenkow of Ukraine (10: 2) and then Miklos Varga of Hungary (10: 4) which guaranteed Donovan a bronze medal. Finally, he lost semi-final against Albert Selimov from Russia on points.[1]

World Series of Boxing

Donovan was one of six Irish boxers drafted in the 2012 season of the World Series of Boxing. Ireland had the biggest number of boxers drafted and Donovan joined the Astana Arlans of Kazakhstan along with Tyrone McCullagh during the international draft in Lausanne, Switzerland.[6]

Donovan was victorious on his World Series of Boxing debut beating Branamir Stankovic on a unanimous points decision (48-47,50-45,48-47) in Almaty, Kazakhstan.[7] Despite narrowly losing his final bout to Vyacheslav Kyslytsyn of the Ukraine Otamans, Donovan was part of the team that won the overall World Series team competition.[8]

Professional career

Donovan turned professional in June 2016. In his opening bout he defeated Polish veteran Damian Lawniczak earning a 40:36 points victory on a Ricky Hatton promoted show at the National Stadium in Dublin.[9]

The Kildare boxer quickly racked up four wins in his first year as a pro before taking on the first significant challenge of his career when he fought Welsh champion Dai Davies for the BUI Celtic title. Donovan won the title at the National Stadium in Dublin by winning every round against Davies and then went on to defend the title in December 2017 against Spaniard Juan Luis Gonzalez.[9]

Donovan would win the BUI Irish National title in March 2019, knocking out Stephen McAfee in the fourth round.[10]

Professional boxing record
Professional record summary
12 fights 12 wins 0 losses
By knockout 7 0
By decision 5 0
12 fights, 12 wins (7 knockouts), 0 loss[11]
No. Result Record Opponent Type Round, time Date Location Notes
12 Win 12-0 Joseafat Reyes TKO 7 1 February 2020 The Devenish Complex, Belfast
11 Win 11-0 Edwin Tellez PTS 6 23 November 2019 Crowne Plaza, Glasgow
10 Win 10-0 Moises Mojica KO 3 22 June 2019 York Hall, London First professional fight outside of Ireland.
9 Win 9-0 Stephen McAfee KO 4 (10) 2:29 30 March 2019 National Stadium, Dublin Irish featherweight title. Live on TG4.
8 Win 8-0 Samuil Dimitrov PTS 4 14 Jul 2018 Dublin, Ireland
7 Win 7-0 Ignac Kassai TKO 2 (6) 1:29 17 Feb 2018 WIT Arena, Waterford Ireland First professional fight outside of Dublin.
6 Win 6-0 Juan Luis Gonzalez PTS 8 2 Dec 2017 National Stadium, Dublin First defence of the BUI Celtic Featherweight title.
5 Win 5-0 Dai Davies PTS 8 9 Sep 2017 National Stadium, Dublin BUI Celtic Featherweight title.
4 Win 4-0 Laszlo Horvath TKO 4 (8) 1:09 27 May 2017 National Stadium, Dublin First contest scheduled for eight rounds, thus qualifying to fight for the BUI Irish title.
3 Win 3-0 Stefan Nicolae TKO 2 (6) 1:09 25 Feb 2017 National Stadium, Dublin First contest scheduled for six rounds
2 Win 2-0 Krzysztof Rogowski TKO 2 (4) 1:23 5 Nov 2016 National Stadium, Dublin First stoppage win as a Professional
1 Win 1-0 Damian Lawniczak PTS 4 25 Jun 2016 National Stadium, Dublin Professional debut

References
  1. "Amateur star Eric Donovan aims for Pro glory". Irish World = 2016-06-10.
  2. "13.World Junior Championships". Strefa = 2016-06-10.
  3. "GB boxers guaranteed five medals at European Champs". BBC News = 2010-06-09.
  4. "Ireland v Italy Match Ends Prematurely". Eurosprt. 16 March 2010.
  5. "Domenico Valentino Bio, Stats, and Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 2020-04-18. Retrieved 2015-08-10.
  6. "Olympic medalist Michael Conlan one of six Irish boxers drafted to World Series of Boxing teams". RTE News = 2010-06-09.
  7. "Eric Donovan leads Astana to victory in Almaty". Sports News Ireland = 2012-06-09.
  8. "WSB Team Finals – 2nd Leg". BoxingAsia.org = 2013-05-13. Archived from the original on 2016-08-10.
  9. "Eric Donovan – BoxRec record". BoxRec= 2016-06-10.
  10. https://www.the42.ie/donovan-mcafee-fight-report-4569441-Mar2019/
  11. Boxing record for Eric Donovan from BoxRec. Retrieved 3 August 2017.
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