FRIENDSHIP DOESN’T ALWAYS translate into business compatibility but business compatibility can cultivate friendship, and so Eric Donovan’s decision to swap promoters wasn’t one he took lightly.
After three years, 12 pro fights, two domestic titles and a headliner on terrestrial TV, ‘Lilywhite Lightning’ has parted company with Leonard Gunning’s Boxing Ireland Promotions and signed on the dotted line with the Belfast-based Mark Dunlop, in whose hometown he is scheduled to embark upon the next stage of his career on 24 April.
At 34 and as a late-comer to the professional scene, Irish featherweight champion Donovan felt the time had come to start motoring. Dunlop’s working relationship with Eddie Hearn has proved fruitful for a stable which includes the likes of former European champion and world-title challenger James Tennyson and WBC-ranked cruiserweight Tommy McCarthy, both of whom have enjoyed memorable nights before the Sky Sports cameras in recent times.
Ultimately, that is the stage Donovan craves, but it had begun to feel too distant. So he did something he hates doing, but something all professional boxers have to do at one stage or another: he made a selfish decision.
“It really was difficult but it was also like… It was hard in a personal sense but it wasn’t hard in a business sense or a career-progression sense, if you know what I mean,” he tells The42 of his departure from Boxing Ireland.
“It was hard in a personal sense because I had built up a good relationship with the lads and I’m the type of person where I don’t like letting people down. I just don’t. It’s not in my makeup. But sometimes you have to just grow up and kind of make a move.
“I just felt like I wasn’t getting the fights that I felt like I warranted, or the career moves that I felt I deserved. And I don’t think it’s anything to do with Boxing Ireland or my [former] manager, Leonard Gunning, not wanting to do that for me. I think it was just that they might not have been able to secure them for me. I think they might have just brought me as far as they could.
Now, I could have stayed with them for another year, two years, but I know I’ve only a short time left — I’m under no illusions. I go around schools and I talk to kids about being brave and taking a chance: ‘Go out there, test yourself, push your boundaries; if you fail, make sure you fail big’ — this is the kind of thing I’d be preaching. And I don’t want to be here in 12, 18 months still doing the same kind of thing, thinking, ‘I wonder how I would have gotten on if I had done this or that’.
“This decision was purely made on a career basis,” Donovan adds. “I spoke to a few people, I spoke to a few different managers, and I said it to Leonard as well — I said, ‘Leonard, look, to be honest with you, I think we might have just reached the end. I’m going to speak to a few people.’
“Mark Dunlop was one of the people I spoke to and I like what he has done with his boxers: he’s gotten them opportunities where they’ve been boxing on Sky Sports, they’ve been boxing on Matchroom shows around Europe. And even though, for example, Tommy McCarthy got a big opportunity and it didn’t work out for him, he got another one again. James Tennyson [challenged for a world title], Paul Hyland Jr now is fighting against [former world champion] Terry Flanagan — and he had a shot against [Lewis] Ritson, he had a fight against Stephen Ormond. So, Mark Dunlop is delivering for his lads and he obviously has good connections.
“There are so many boxers out there that I’d love to fight — Ryan Doyle, Reece Belotti, Jordan Gill, Leigh Wood… I think Mark can get me fights against these guys on Matchroom shows or whatever.
Even when I spoke to Mark, he was talking about the undercards of Katie Taylor’s fights and that’s where I want to be — I want to be on these stages. Because I could continue to top the bill on small-hall shows around Ireland and it’s great, but we’re not really attracting the big names over, you know what I mean? So it looks like I might have to go and search for them! And that’s really what I’m doing here.
Dunlop’s gain is Boxing Ireland’s loss, and it’s doubtless a sore one. Donovan was their flagship fighter, the jewel in a crown of thorns: Boxing Ireland essentially consists of three working men, led by Gunning, who have for three years channelled their own resources into running memorable Celtic Clash shows — often at a loss — in a bid to cultivate a domestic boxing scene in a country where, south of the border, insurance costs and inherited reputational damage render that nigh on impossible.
Boxing Ireland are to the sport on the ground here what Irish-boxing.com is to the sport in the media sphere: the lifeblood, the essence, and a platform on which up-and-coming Irish fighters can try to make names for themselves.
It’s a fact not lost on Donovan, who under Gunning’s promotional banner won a Celtic title, an Irish title, and headlined cards in the Republic, in the North, and in London after years in which the pro game in the former had all but vanished from existence.
They will always have those nights in the Stadium, in the Devenish, and in York Hall. And the Athy native says he’ll lend a helping hand in making more of them should it ever be required.
“I know that you’re going to have to upset people to make a move like this. But I have to think about myself as well. I’ve had a good time with Boxing Ireland Promotions. I think I’ve given them a lot, they’ve given me a lot, and I hope that we can remain on good terms because there has been no fallout. I said to Leonard, ‘I hope we can remain friends.’ And he said to me, ‘We won’t fall out over it.’ And it was great to hear that.
“I didn’t do anything untoward towards them and I’ve actually nothing but praise for them. I think what they’ve done for Irish boxing is incredible. And I know they’re really struggling with resources. Pro boxing was nearly extinct in this country, there, for a while, and they revitalised it; they got the blood pumping through Irish pro boxing again.
“I’ll tell you something: what it shows is that you can actually build up a bit of a career for yourself with Boxing Ireland Promotions. If you’re good enough and you’re marketable and you can sell a few tickets, you can actually build up a bit of a fanbase and get yourself into a very good position. And that’s a very good thing that we have here with Boxing Ireland Promotions — we’re very lucky to have that. I have massive respect for Leonard, for Stephen [Sharpe], for Dennis [Morrison], and if there’s anything I can do for them in the future — if I can help with anything — I’d like to keep that door open and keep that relationship open. I’d be happy to help out.
“They got me up to this level. And I think that’s it — we might have just reached the level. I didn’t want to spend my time having regrets. And what might have happened then would be I might have gotten a little bit bitter. I just felt like I needed somebody to take me to that next level. I’m ready to go, you know?”
And so he goes to Dunlop in a move which he hopes will steepen his upward trajectory, and open the doors that he has thus far found to be shut.
This will be it: his chance to find out how good he is. And he will find out, one way or the other.
“In the conversations I’ve had with Mark, and with his connections in the boxing world, he said to me: ‘I can guarantee you the big fights, but I can’t win them for you.’ And I said: ‘Well, that’s great. You set them up. I’ll win them myself.’
Like, when I think about it, I’m a professional boxer but I haven’t once been tested yet. So I’m under no illusion, like, that it’s going to get very difficult for me as I step up in levels. But I haven’t really had to go down to the soles of my shoes at at all, like — I haven’t really been hurt or in trouble or anything like that. I really need that stress, that potential danger put in front of me: a big name, a big fight, a big title, a big occasion, a big platform. That’s what I need.
