Newly crowned World Boxing Association (WBA) Continental Welterweight Champion, rising Irish star Paddy “The Real Deal” Donovan (12-0, 9 KOs), returns to action this Saturday night (Jan. 27) at Ulster Hall in Belfast to make his first title defense against Williams Andres Herrera (15-2, 6 KOs) in a 10-round fight streaming live on DAZN.
Donovan, who celebrated his 25th birthday this past January 10th, has also cracked the world ratings at No. 13 in the WBA, the result of his sensational fourth-round stoppage of English welterweight champion Danny Ball (13-2-1, 6 KOs) last November 25th in Dublin on a DAZN pay-per-view headlined by the Irish superstar Katie Taylor-Chantelle Cameron rematch.
“I’m going into this fight with a new belt and ranked 13th in the world,” fan favorite Donovan said. “I’m really hungry to just keep getting fights to keep shining on big stages. I love fighting, I love being the center of attention. I want to be world champion in the next 12 to 15 months. I’m building my resume under WBA sanctioning and Eimantas Stanionis (14-0, 9 KOs), from Lithuania, is the WBA Welterweight Champion. So, I’ve got my eye on him.”
Fighting out of his native Argentina, Herrera is a 27-year-old former International Boxing Federation (IBF) Latino Super Welterweight Champion, whose 12-fight win streak was snapped in his last fight by way of a 10-round unanimous decision to Josh Wagner (16-0).
“Paddy has trained extremely hard for this fight and he’s really maturing into a world-class professional boxer,” Donovan’s head trainer Andy Lee added. “Watching his skills improve each day and also seeing how intelligent he is in the ring leads me to believe this will be another star performance from Paddy.”
Former world middleweight champion Lee also co-manages Donovan with New York City-based lawyer Keith Sullivan.
“We believe Paddy has the skill, talent and hunger to be a world champion,” Sullivan commented. “More importantly, he has the willingness to continue learning and developing under Andy’s meticulous training style.”
Donovan is using his boxing platform to promote the suicide prevention charity that provides mental health services throughout Ireland, Pieta House. Paddy lost two relatives to suicide. The Pieta Crisis Helpline, 1-800-247-247, offers crisis intervention support, 24 hours a day 365 days a year, to anyone experiencing suicidal thoughts or engaging in self-harm and also supports those bereaved through suicide. “If I can get somebody to call that number and change their life,” Donovan believes, “I think my deed is done on this earth.”
