Irish phenom Paddy Donovan, a Top Rank Fighter, Wins Impressively in Bolton

Bob Arum called him the handsomest young boxer to come down the pike since Muhammad Ali. Arum was referencing Paddy Donovan. Of course, Arum didn’t rope Donovan into his Top Rank stable because of Donovan’s good looks. Reputedly 161-5 as an amateur, Donovan seemingly has the tools to go far. Today (Friday, Feb. 19), competing as a welterweight on an ESPN+ card at a hotel in Bolton, England, the 22-year-old Traveler from Limerick moved his professional record to 6-0 at the expense of Siar Ozgul whose corner pulled him out after four one-sided rounds. Although the bout was part of the undercard on a show with two domestic title fights, Donovan’s fight attracted the most curiosity.

Donovan is trained by Andy Lee, the former WBO world middleweight champion who turned pro under the tutelage of the great Emanuel Steward. It’s a perfect fit. Lee is a fellow Traveler and is also from Limerick. And in common with Lee, Paddy Donovan is a southpaw.

Andy Lee and Tyson Fury are related. They are second cousins. Lee assisted SugarHill Steward in Fury’s corner when the Gypsy King throttled Deontay Wilder in February of last year and Paddy Donovan sat close by. Lee brought him to Las Vegas where Fury finished up his training. He wanted his young protégé to get a taste of what to expect when he hit the big time. Donovan says it made him hungrier.

Donovan, who is represented by MTK Global, the powerful sports management firm that has been in the news a lot lately for all the wrong reasons, comes from a fighting family. His younger brother Edward Donovan recently signed with Frank Warren, Arum’s occasional collaborator. His grandfather, says Paddy, was such a big fan of Mike Tyson that he went and had a “Mike Tyson tattoo,” by which he means the geezer got a tattoo on his face.

Despite his good looks, it’s doubtful that Paddy Donovan will become a matinee idol like the young Oscar De La Hoya. In common with many Travelers (and Mormons, an awkward juxtaposition), Paddy married young. He is the father of a young daughter.

When Bob Arum signed Donovan, it was with the thought of introducing him to a U.S. audience at his 2021 St. Patrick’s Day promotion in New York. Unfortunately, that’s not happening; there won’t be any St. Paddy’s Day show this year, at least not in New York. Covid-19 restrictions won’t be sufficiently loosened in time to make it economically feasible. (The word is that Arum hopes to pot a show in Madison Square Garden in June during the Puerto Rican Day weekend festivities and that certainly seems realistic. In an article in the Feb. 19 edition of the Wall Street Journal, author Marty Makary, a distinguished professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, predicted that Covid-19 will be “mostly gone” by April.)

About Siar Ozgul, Donovan’s opponent today. He had lost five of his last six after opening his career 14-0, but he was a good measuring rod as he had been stopped only once, that coming in the 10^th round of a 10-round fight, and he went the distance with the likes of Viktor Postol and Anthony Yigit. Yes, Ozgul was a fairly safe opponent, but he represented a step-up in class for Donovan and the kid from Limerick passed the test with flying colors.

Published reports exaggerate Paddy Donovan’s amateur record (par for the course and a subject for another day), but Bob Arum’s in-house advisors have a keen eye for talent and this young man has a very bright future.

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