Paddy Donovan has made a stunning revelation ahead of his next fight.
The 23-year-old talent returns to the ring on Saturday night.
Donovan, from Limerick in Ireland, is promoted by Top Rank and trained by former WBO world middleweight champion Andy Lee.
And the former 13-time Irish champion is in action at the SSE Arena in Belfast, as part of the supporting cast to the return of Michael Conlan.
Conlan, the former Olympian who shot to fame after being contentiously beaten in the 2016 Games in Rio, was beaten last time out in a challenge for the WBA ‘regular’ featherweight crown against Leigh Wood, being knocked out of the ring and stopped in the final of 12 rounds at the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham back in March.
‘MC’ is back against former world title challenger Miguel Marriaga over 12, while ‘The Real Deal’ Donovan takes on Tom Hill.
Hill (10-2, 2 KOs) is full of confidence, having beaten Rohan Date last time out, but Donovan –– who Top Rank head Bob Arum called the most handsome fighter since Muhammad Ali –– is looking to move up the ladder sooner rather than later.
But ahead of his comeback, having had six months out after a win on the undercard of Josh Taylor’s surprising win over Jack Catterall at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland back in February, Donovan told Boxing Social about the return to training of a certain retired fighter.
“I hope he comes back,” Donovan said about Tyson Fury, who trains alongside him, Joseph Parker and Sonny Boy Williams.
Fury was most recently in action in April when he retained his world title with a sixth-round stoppage of number one contender Dillian Whyte at Wembley Stadium in London.
In the aftermath, the 33-year-old, who has had a public fallout with former pal Chisora, claimed he was retiring from the sport and insisted that a pot of $500million and a fight with Oleksandr Usyk, the WBA Super, IBF, WBO and IBO champion, would be the only thing to tempt him to lace up the gloves again – unless a fight against Anthony Joshua at Wembley materialises.
Donovan added:
“It’s good for me when he’s back, because he’s training and I get to attend his training camps and I hope that I’ll be given the opportunity to fight on one of his shows.
“But I believe he’s going to come back, I think he’s a tremendous fighter, a tremendous person and I hope he comes back.
“Joshua against Usyk is a great fight and I think Usyk’s going to win it, but I kind of want Joshua to win it to see Tyson come back and to see that fight happen.”