Eric Donovan (born 26 July 1985) is an Irish
professional boxer
Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...
. As an
amateur he was a five-time Irish national champion and won bronze medals at the
2009 European Union Championships and the
2010 European Championships. His new website has launched: www.ericdonovan.ie
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
Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In MMA, bantamweight is .
The name for the class is derived from bantam chickens. B ...
division before moving to
featherweight
Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling.
Boxing
Professional boxing
History
A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, t ...
and in 2007 to
lightweight
Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing.
Boxing
Professional boxing
The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing.
Notable 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.
In 2004, he competed at the
Youth World Championship in
Jeju, South Korea, losing in the round of 32 to Hoandry Lomba from Cuba. Donovan competed at the
2005 World Championships in
Mianyang
Mianyang (; formerly known as Mienchow) is the second largest prefecture-level city of Sichuan province in Southwest China. Located in north-central Sichuan covering an area of consisting of Jiangyou, a county-level city, five counties, and thr ...
, 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 ninth overall.
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
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
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, he 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
Domenico Valentino (born 17 May 1984 in Marcianise) is a boxer from Italy.
The hard punching Valentino won a bronze medal at lightweight at the 2004 European Amateur Boxing Championships in Pula, Croatia.
He participated in the 2004 Summer Ol ...
, against whom he lost on points (12:29), which gave him a ninth-place finish at this championship.
He 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
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
in
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
. 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 Championships in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
.
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
Albert Shevketovich Selimov (; born 5 April 1986) is a Russian former amateur boxer of Lezgin descent. He is best known for being the only man to defeat Vasiliy Lomachenko in the amateur ranks. Competing for Russia he won the 2007 world title, ...
from Russia on points.
World Series of Boxing
Donovan was one of six Irish boxers drafted in the
2012 season of the World Series of Boxing (WSB). 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
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...
, Switzerland.
Donovan was victorious in his WSB debut beating Branamir Stankovic on a
unanimous decision
A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighte ...
(48–47, 50–45, 48–47) in
Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Despite narrowly losing his final bout to Vyacheslav Kyslytsyn of the Ukraine Otamans, Donovan was part of the team that won the overall competition.
Professional career
Donovan turned professional in June 2016. In his opening bout he defeated Polish veteran Damian Lawniczak earning a 40–36
points decision victory on a
Ricky Hatton
Richard John Hatton (born 6 October 1978) is a British former professional boxer who competed between 1997 and 2012, and has since worked as a boxing promoter and trainer. During his boxing career he held multiple world championships at l ...
promoted show at the
National Stadium
Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...
in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
.
The Kildare boxer quickly racked up four wins in his first year as 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.
Donovan would win the BUI Irish National title in March 2019, knocking out Stephen McAfee in the fourth round.
In June 2020 it was announced that Donovan was to fight Commonwealth super-featherweight champion Zelfa Barrett, as chief undercard support to Felix Cash versus Jason Welborn on the third of Matchroom Boxing’s Fight Camp cards, which were confirmed to take place on 1 August, 7 August, 14 August and 21 August. Giving away a significant size advantage to the younger Barret, Donovan used his amateur boxing pedigree to shade the first 6 rounds, however the heavier blows from Barret told in the 7th round, with Donovan knocked down twice. A third and final knockdown by Barret in the 8th ended the fight.
In April 2021 it was announced that Donovan would challenged Italy's Mario Alfano for the vacant European super featherweight title on 14 May 2021, with the bout set for Brescia in Italy.
In September 2022, Eric Donovan won the EBU super-featherweight title, beating Frenchman Khalil El Hadri in the
Europa Hotel in Belfast. About six weeks later, in November 2022, he announced his retirement from boxing, saying "now after 30 years in the game, I am finally content with my achievements in the ring".
Professional boxing record
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donovan, Eric
1985 births
Living people
Irish male boxers
Lightweight boxers
Boxers from County Kildare