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‘A lesser man would’ve quit’ – Gaughran hails comeback kid Donegan ahead of title fight

Dominic Donegan [7(1)-4(1)-1] could write the ultimate happy ending to an unlikely fairytale story in Scotland this weekend suggests his manager Ian Gaughran.

Donegan travels to Glasgow where he takes on Ben McGivern [4(1)-2 (0)] for the career-enhancing BBBofC middleweight title on a Sam Kynoch show.

Victory won’t quite complete a rags-to-riches tale but will be a unique transition from confidence dismantled fighter to champion. 

The Cavan fighter endured a disastrous 18 months, where he went five fights without a win and suffered high-profile defeats to Graham McCormack and Owen Duffy. Indeed, after the dramatic TV broadcast defeat to neighbour Duffy, there were suggestions the 28-year-old may call it a day. 

However, he battled on and is now just one win away from being a European-ranked fighter.   

“You couldn’t make it up. When he was stopped when a couple of rounds up on the referee’s scorecard against Owen Duffy – with that punch – it was a sickener for Dom, it really was.

“You know, it was another defeat – his fourth in five – and a lesser man would have jacked it in after that.” Gaughran explains. 

“But Dom really is made of tough stuff and we knew that we could get his confidence back and get him back towards the domestic title picture,” he said pointing out the loss of Harrison Jameson has motivated him to suceed.  

“It was in camp for his rebuild fight in Girdwood then that he lost Harrison[Jameson] – and I can tell you there is not a day that goes by that Harrison isn’t in his thoughts, and all of Team Dom’s thoughts – but he has channelled the pain of Harrison’s passing and found some good in it.

“Harrison is always with him, on his gear, in his thoughts, in training, in the ring, and he will be with him on March 10th when Dom has this huge opportunity.”

McGivern will be familiar to Irish fight fans as the man who Jamie Morrissey beat for the BUI Celtic Super Middleweight title in October and will be looking to exact revenge on the Irish. Gaughran and the team are expecting a really tough night at the office but have faith in ‘The Bomb’ can register a massive win and get a busy weekend for Irish boxing off to an explosive start.

“We know exactly what Ben brings, he will be in Dom’s face all night – coming forward and making it extremely difficult. He’s a lovely fella, but he’s also a very hard man and Dom will need to be at his best to beat him,” the IBG boss added.

“Dom will have a couple of inches on Ben but we saw in the Jamie fight that Ben knows full well how to deal with that and he deservedly took rounds off Jamie – this is a real 50/50!

“He is so much improved since teaming up with Dan and this is an opportunity both the lads are massively looking forward to. As you know, the winner becomes ranked in Europe, such is the clout of this title, so the team have put in four massive weeks of hard graft before March 10th.”

Photo Credit Mark Mead

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