Owen O’Neill not buying into the Troll-ocks
Owen O’Neill says Dominic Donegan can mock and troll as much as he wants, warning it won’t prevent him from doing a victory dance come March 30 meeting.
The Cavan side of the all-Ulster meeting set for the Kurt Walker topped Conlan Boxing card next month seemed to poke fun at his former amateur rival as soon as their fight was made.
The Belfast fighter came in over the agreed welterweight limit for an Irish title fight with Declan Geraghty late last year, and Donegan was happy to remind him of it.
He did so in such a manner ‘Tripple 0’s’ following took real offense, although the always jovial former BUI Celtic light middleweight champion was keen to laugh it off.
The well-supported ‘Operator’ admits he was surprised to hear of the trolling considering ‘The Bomb’ has shared kind words with him – but isn’t put out whatsoever.
The Padraig McCrory managed 2023 Irish Boxing Awards Knockout of Year winner says he has no Donegan beef.
“There’s no real bad blood between us, well not with me anyways,” O’Neill tells Irish-boxing.com.
“I don’t know what made him do that,” he adds of the social media posts.
“A lot of people have said it to me but I haven’t seen it to be honest, but still I’ll give him the respect he deserves. We also messaged each other last week on Instagram to get the fight made and he was calling me ‘pal’ and stuff. Then as soon as the fight was announced he trolled me a bit. But listen it builds the fight so let him fire away.”
He also believes the exciting nature of their Ulster Intermediate final means the fight sells itself and doesn’t need tricks or trinkets.
“I think Dom has asked for the fight about or four times since we’ve turned pro. Our Ulster final was a cracking scrap that could have gone either way, so it’s just all built from that. We also had an exhibition in Ulster Hall which was another cracker and the time we sparred was also good.”
The fact O’Neill lost the pairs 2017 Intermediate decider means he doesn’t need bad blood to fuel a desire for victory, revenge is motivation enough.
“This is a chance for me to get my revenge from that Ulster final. Dom obviously thinks he has my number but I’ll prove he doesn’t,” he adds before giving a simple prediction.
“A win from me simple.”
