Eric Donovan

Eric Donovan (born 26 July 1985) is an Irish boxer from Athy, County Kildare. His achievements include five Irish Elite titles and a bronze medal at the 2010 European Championships in Moscow, since turning professional he became the first boxer to win the BUI Celtic title inside five fights.

Donovan boxed for St. Michael's Boxing Club, Athy where he was trained by Dominic O'Rourke.He debuted as a senior boxer in the Bantamweight division before moving to Featherweight and in 2007 to Lightweight. His first Irish Elite title came in 2004 at bantamweight with a points victory over Brian Gillen in the final. Donovanwould go on to win five Irish Elite titles.

In 2004, he competed at the World Youth Championship in Jeju, South Korea, losing in the 'Round of 32' to Hoandry Lomba from Cuba. In 2005, Donovan participated at the World Championships in Mianyang, China.He defeated featherweight Arash Usmanee of Canada on points (31:12), but lost in the second round against Viorel Simion of Romania on points (25:40), which he left and finished 9th overall.

In the 2006 European Championship in Plovdiv he earned a points victory over the strong Turk Yakup Kiliç (33:29), but was defeated in the second round against Alexei Schaidulin from Bulgaria.

In the 2007 World Championships in Chicago, Donovan moved up to compete at Lightweight earning victories over Miklos Varga from Hungary (39:22) and Jonathan Batista from the Dominican Republic (21:4).In the next round he encountered the favored Italian Domenico Valentino, against whom he lost on points (12:29), which gave him a 9th-place finish at this championship.

Donovan earned a points victory over Ross Hickey to clinch the 2009 Irish Lightweight title which earned him a spot on the Irish team at the World Championships in Milan.There he won his first fight against Tajiks Bahodir Karimov on points (13: 4), but lost his next fight against the Indian Jai Bhagwan on points.

European medalist

In March 2010, he defeated reigning world champion Domenico Valentino on points (11: 8), which set him up for the European Championship in Moscow. There he defeated Rashid Kassem of Denmark (10: 2) before overcoming Dimitri Bulenkow of Ukraine (10: 2) and then Miklos Varga of Hungary (10: 4) which guaranteed Donovan a bronze medal. Finally, he lost semi-final against Albert Selimov from Russia on points.

World Series of Boxing

Donovan was one of six Irish boxers drafted in the 2012 season of the World Series of Boxing. Ireland had the biggest number of boxers drafted and Donovan joined the Astana Arlans of Kazakhstan along with Tyrone McCullagh during the international draft in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Donovan was victorious on his World Series of Boxing debut beating Branamir Stankovic on a unanimous points decision (48-47,50-45,48-47) in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Despite narrowly losing his final bout to Vyacheslav Kyslytsyn of the Ukraine Otamans, Donovan was part of the team that won the overall World Series team competition.

Donovan turned professional in June 2016. In his opening bout he defeated Polish veteran Damian Lawniczak earning a 40:36 points victory on a Ricky Hatton promoted show at the National Stadium in Dublin.

The Kildare boxer quickly racked up four wins in his first year as a pro before taking on the first significant challenge of his career when he fought Welsh champion Dai Davies for the BUI Celtic title. Donovan won the title at the National Stadium in Dublin by winning every round against Davies and then went on to defend the title in December 2017 against Spaniard Juan Luis Gonzalez.