Heartbreak to High Stakes – Paddy Donovan Determined to Honour Late Cousins with Career-Defining Victory
Paddy Donovan hopes he can ease the pain of his mourning family by giving them reason to smile in Germany tonight.
The Limerick southpaw takes on the experienced Karen Chukhadzhian in an IBF welterweight world title eliminator live on DAZN.
Victory would ensure ‘The Real Deal’ a second shot at the world title and may give small and temporary pain relief to his grieving family.
During camp, he lost two of his cousins via tragic circumstances just days apart. He will pay tribute to both by sporting their names on his shorts on Friday and plans to do them both proud with a performance and a win of note.
“I’ve dedicated the fight to them both,” Donovan told The Ring. “I’ve put their names on my fight kit and shorts. Obviously, it has not been easy. I’m trying to balance the feelings of my own family at home, what they were going through, things like that.
“But whose life is easy? The thing is, we’ve just got to keep strong and keep moving forward. I’m tired of deaths. I’m tired of all this sorrow and things like this. It is what it is. It’s our life, and we’ve just got to keep moving forward.
“They were my dad’s first cousins,” Donovan adds. “I attended Scarlett’s funeral and spent all of that day with Jason. “I ended up coming back up to find out he had drowned. It was extremely stressful. I just couldn’t get to grips with it enough to head to Jason’s funeral.
“I just told Andy that I can’t face heading back down to Limerick for another funeral. I’m just going to stay in camp. I’m just going to give my wishes to the family. I just tried to be locked in as much as I could be in this camp. I owe it to them to give it everything now. I understand I’m coming of age at 27 years old, and there’s a lot of pressure on these fights.”
The tragic passings have been extremely tough for the Munster stylist, but he’s managed to get through camp and goes into a crucial fight determined and with a result orientated focus.
“I know my private life, and I understand the family issues are extremely tough, but I have to push. I’ve never been more locked in, ever, in any single camp. Andy will probably tell you the same thing. This is the best I’ve ever been.
“There’s no more playboy. It’s time to get down to brass tacks now. Instead of looking good, I actually have to be good. Trying to be the full package is not easy. Now the only thing I am focused on is getting the result on the night.”
