BBBofC Celtic Title Shot for Comeback Kid Dominic Donegan
It hasn’t been even five months since Dominic Donegan was stopped by the shot of a lifetime from local rival Owen Duffy in the Cavan Clash.
It was the final defeat in a run of four losses in five, with a draw thrown into the mix, in what was his first fight since teaming up with coach Dan Anderson and his first fight as a member of the IGB stable.
Since then, Donegan (7-4-1) has battled through the tragic loss of his great friend and teammate Harrison Jameson, battled his way back into the winning column.
When British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC) circulars went out on Friday morning, Donegan’s name appeared under the Celtic Championships section.
‘The Bomb’ had asked for a clash with Scot Ben McGivern after he defeated CJ Wood over six rounds in Glasgow last month, demanding his manager Gaughran make the fight – now the 28-year-old is set to battle for his first title, and with it a European ranking.
Irish-boxing.com had previously reported on a potential Ulster Hall showdown between the two at the Ulster Hall but when talk of that show went quiet it seemed as though we would have to wait for the intriguing contest.
Now, Donegan and McGivern will go toe-to-toe over 10 rounds for the BBBofC Celtic Middleweight title on the undercard of the Kynoch-Boxing-promoted Nathaniel Collins vs James Beech fight for the British and Commonwealth titles on March 10th, and his manager is extremely excited at the prospect.
“He has had two good wins now and looked better in each of them, so we squirreled away in the background to try get this fight made – there were a lot of moving parts but I’m over the moon to be able to have gotten it over the line with Sam Kynoch,” Gaughran told Irish-boxing.com.
“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. 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.
“It was in camp for his rebuild fight in Girdwood then that he lost Harrison – 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 (4-2-1) 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 for the reverse – Gaughran and the team are expecting a really tough night at the office.
“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 will be putting in four massive weeks of hard graft until March 10th.”
