Paddy Donovan is ready to return to the lion’s den in order to put the Lewis Crocker chapter of his career to bed.

Donovan appears to be headed into a September rematch with Crocker, probably back at the SSE Arena in Belfast, where he lost via disqualification to Crocker, thus suffering the first defeat of his career.

Donovan had boxed superbly and was well up on the cards, but he’d been penalised twice for fouls before a punch after the bell – which levelled Crocker – brought about the fight’s unsatisfactory climax.

Limerick’s Donovan, trained by Andy Lee, was heartbroken in the aftermath, but the 26-year-old – now 14-1 (11 KOs) – is hoping to put on a similar performance with a different ending next time.

“It probably looks to be Belfast,” Donovan said of the rematch, confirming a previous BoxingScene report “I think, look, Belfast is a wonderful city. Obviously, I’d like it down south, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with Belfast.”

Belfast, where Crocker is from, was electric on March 1 and while Donovan took his fair share of fans, there was no secret who the majority of the 8,000 were pulling for, and it was not the Limerick left-hander.

Even so, Donovan was unfazed by the response and heard only the positivity from his supporters. 

“It’s funny to say, I know you might think I’m actually lying, but on the walkout I don’t know, is it a thing that fighters do, am I the only fighter? I’m not sure, or is every other fighter like this in a hostile crowd?” Donovan asked. “But, honestly, I could only hear my crowd. It’s funny. Maybe I was looking to hear just the support for me. And I remember the walkout. There wasn’t a nerve in my body. There was nothing scaring me. Absolutely nothing. I could only see and hear my fans. I just felt like I never heard his crowd. I just heard mine. I had no nerves. I had no funny feelings in the ring. I just felt like it was just the right time.”

With the exception of the infringements, and there were those who said Crocker should have had warnings for coming in head-first, Donovan was happy with how he boxed, and he said he had been surprised by the reaction to the fight in some quarters. 

“Well, to be fair, I’ve got a lot of messages from his support and his fans saying they’re fans of Crocker, but [that] I did an amazing job and ‘you should have got the fight.’ A lot of support from his was texting me. So yeah, I think I did all right.”

Lee’s stable of fighters now includes heavyweight Joseph Parker, super middleweight Hamzah Sheeraz, and light heavyweight prospect Ben Whittaker, and the group has momentum. At the start of Donovan’s career, it was just him and Lee.

“To now have Joseph Parker in the camp, to now have Ben Whittaker in the camp and Andy’s new fighter [Sheeraz],” Donovan said, “yeah, things have changed. It’s brilliant. You know, like I started off with Andy back in 2020 together, just me and Andy. We did practically everything together, just me and him in the gym, nine o’clock every morning, walking to the gym, just me and him leaving the gym, going to the gym, leaving the gym, going to the gym, for years.”