Rematch-hungry Donegan says Duffy ‘can’t be happy’ with Clash of Cavan win

Dominic Donegan [5(1)-4(1)-1] believes Owen Duffy [6(3)-2(1)] should want a rematch just as bad as he does.

‘The Bomb’s’ repeat motivation is quite clear considering he lost one of the most parochial fights in Irish boxing history on TG4 last month.

On the other hand as the victor and a fighter who has a tv title fight lined up, Duffy doesn’t appear to have any reason to want to re-run.

However, Donegan argues otherwise.

The Drumgoon fighter doesn’t think the Shercock puncher, who fights Owen O’Neill [9-0] for the BUI Celtic light-middleweight title live on TG4 next month, will be content with how he won the fight.

Again for most Duffy’s get-up-of-the-floor knockout win is brilliantly Rocky, but Donegan feels the fact his rival was down and behind on points should niggle at him.

“Owen can’t be happy with that,” Donegan tells Irish-boxing.com.

“He was losing the fight and landed a very good shot. The fight shouldn’t have even gone past the second round. I should have gone in for the kill and ended it then. So after I get two confidence-building wins I’ll be looking for a rematch.

“He said live on TG4 that he didn’t want the rematch. I think that’s because deep down he knows I have the beating of him. He can say he has nothing to prove but he was losing the fight. He won the fight with a good shot and fair play, but he knows he was losing the fight. I want the rematch and I think he should want it, so he can try to win it without people saying he was losing. Everyone is talking about it and everyone that sees me says I was well ahead. If I was him I wouldn’t want it.”

Donegan, who returns on November 19 on the same MHD XXV show as his fellow county man, spoke about how hard he would find it to show his face around town if he lost to the Shercock fighter.

However, he feels he can hold his head high after the performance he put in and takes genuine solace in the fact he was leading on the scorecards.

“If I do walk into the local shop or pub, people who watched the fight know I was ahead and know I was the better boxer on the night.

“If I had let my right hand go a bit more and went for the finish instead of giving too much respect I may have got the finish. I took too much time. The people that watched the fight and know anything boxing know I was winning the fight and Owen needed a knockout to win. He got that and hats off to him. The fight isn’t over until the final bell, he kept going and he got me out of there in the fifth round and he needed it,” he adds before revealing he now wants to put a run of five fights without a win behind him with victory over Josh Cook next month.

“I’m going to focus on getting my confidence up. I need to build my confidence. My next two fights are going to be with journeymen but I’m definitely looking for that rematch. “