Donnellan: I hope to tempt my promoter into the West

ALAN Donnellan is hoping to persuade new promoter Mark Dunlop to come into the West.

‘Donny’ starts a new career chapter this coming Saturday when he takes on Iain Jackson in the Devinish on Saturday night and after enduring a torrid 2013 the Galway native is planning a career revival.

The super middleweight, who built a fan base when fighting in Belgium, knows the road to recovery begins in Belfast, but he hopes all roads will lead to the West.

Donnellan would love nothing more than to compete on big bills in his home town.

“Right now, I live train and work in Galway. The people supporting me will be travelling to Belfast. To be honest I’ll fight wherever Mark decides – I just hope that my performances in future can persuade him to explore the West of Ireland,” Donnellan told Irish-boxing.com.

Donnellan’s decision to link up with a Belfast promoter surprised some, but the Westerner explains that Dunlop made an impression on him directly after he lost Ciaran Healy in the same venue he fights in this coming weekend.

“Mark was a guy I had been aware of professionally for a long time. But personally he made an impression on me after the Ciaran Healy fight. He approached me when I was feeling really angry that my undefeated record had been taken from me. He understood that I felt I had won and he taught me a lot about the economics of boxing in a very short time.

“It didn’t make me feel any better but it made me understand. Early this year when I found myself in a position to apply myself to boxing again, he was the guy I wanted to take care of the business side of things.”