By Jonny Stapleton

Paddy McDonagh plans to register the first of what he believes will be an impressive McDonagh double in Hove this Saturday night.

McDonagh enters the ring for the first time as Irish light heavyweight champion, as he takes on John Anthony (7-25-3) eight days before his older brother JJ competes in the All Irish Prizefighter in Belfast.

The brothers have been training together ahead of the their most recent and differing test and the younger of the two siblings is confident of two McDonagh wins within a week.

“Prizefighter will be tough,  but my money is on my brother JJ. We are training down in Cork with the Cubans. Our sparing and training is going very well and hopefully all the hard work will pay off,” McDonagh told www.irish-boxing.com.

The 20 year old defeated John Waldron to claim the right to call himself the best light heavyweight in Ireland in January and will use the green strap to progress his career in 2012.

The West Meath pug was heavily linked to a clash with a title shot with  Seanie Monaghan, Navan’s Long Beach fighter, on the under card of Matthew Macklin’s massive fight with Sergio Martinez, but the fight never materialised.

However the undefeated prospect is claims he is both ready to travel and defend his title over the course of this year.

“It is great to be Irish champ. I would like to defend my title against someone before the year is out. I plan  to have a few fights in New York and England this year, but first I have to get over my next challenge. I am boxing John Anthony in Britain and it will be a tough eight round clash, but hopefully I will win.”

Meanwhile Seanie Monaghan will return to the ring on June 14 on one of Lou DiBella’s Roseland Ballroom cards. The massive ticket seller is hoping to fight for some form of title on the show.

Staying with the big men Darren Corbett is rumoured to be fighting

23 year old German prospect David Graf 6(5)-0-0 over 6×3 on the 15^th of July. That fight has yet to be confirmed on Boxrec.