Donovan calls for O’Neill to fight or vacate

Edward Donovan [5(1)-0] has asked Owen O’Neill [11(1)-0] to fight or step off the light middleweight train.

The Limerick native says the BUI light middleweight title is his ticket onto the Katie Taylor May 20 undercard and is desperate to fight for the pretty strap as a result.

The belt is currently held by ‘The Operator’ O’Neill, who won it live on TG4, stopping Owen Duffy with the Irish Boxing Awards Knocout of the Year in the Irish Boxing Awards Domestic Fight of the Year.

That win made the Belfast fighter, the younger brother of Paddy Donovan’s number 1 target. However, the former underage amateur standout, who makes his professional Irish debut on the Elite Sheer card at the National Stadium on April 1, is concerned the fight won’t be made.

“I’ve got the go-ahead to fight on the Katie Taylor undercard on May 20 if I can get the fight with Owen O’Neill for the [BUI Celtic title],” he told Irish-boxing.com.

“I am hoping he will take it. Our team got onto his team and got no reply yet. So if he’d take that fight, that would be great,” he adds before revealing the bout and the title are key to his involvement on the historic card.

“It’s a lot easier for me to get on the card if it’s a title fight. It’s going to be a stacked card with top fighters and most of them will be title fights, so I probably need a title fight to get on it.”

Considering the graft he had to put into place the title around his waist, the champion won’t be keen to give it up, but there is talk he will look to move down the scales over the next few camps.

Such a big card must appeal but ‘Triple 0’ holds the title and thus all the cards, meaning he can pick and choose which eligible he would like to defend it against. Although if he has no intentions of ever putting the title on the line again, Donovan has pleaded with him to vacate.

“I’d fight anyone for a title on it but Owen O’Neill has the title I want. It would only be fair if he vacates the title if he doesn’t want to defend it because he is only backing up the train. If there is some problem where he can’t fight he should vacate it and leave me fight for it. I am pretty sure there are fighters out there that would love to fight for it.”