IN the battle of Breffni, Dominic Donegan (5-3-1) takes on near-neighbour Owen Duffy (5-2) for the unofficial Cavan middleweight title at the Europa Hotel on September 24.
Donegan hails from Drumgoon, Duffy comes from nearby Shercock and although they get along they’re getting it ‘on’ in what is the first ever all-Cavan professional fight.
With bragging rights, personal pride and – perhaps most important of all - the chance to secure a shot at the Irish middleweight title on the line, the fuse is lit in both fighters who were team-mates in their county’s U14 and U16 Gaelic Football teams.
Tall and super-fit, Donegan started boxing at the age of 14 in Cootehill ABC and, after drifting away from the sport for a year, he returned at the Carrickmacross club. He enlisted in the Irish Army, is a former Army champion and has brought that experience into his professional career which he now supplements with working as a personal trainer.
Donegan headlined the last event MHD Promotions event when he fought for a BUI Celtic title against Graham McCormack. He lost on points but says the lessons learned on a disappointing night have made him a better fighter.
“I learned a lot and I took a lot of positives out of it,” said Donegan who trains in Belfast with Dan Anderson.
“What happened me in that fight will definitely not happen to me in this one. I fought the wrong fight. I got drawn into a scrap and made it very hard on myself when I could have made it easy.
“I won the first round hands-down and then I got drawn into a fight – if I had boxed the way I did in the first round I’d have been defending my title on September 24th.”
He didn’t, so he isn’t but says he’s determined to “right the wrong” against Duffy - not that he expects his fellow county man to be an easy touch.
“I probably could have taken an easier fight,” said Donegan who still lines out for his local GAA club Drumgoon GAC.
“But there’s no point fighting journeymen and this fight made sense. The two of us are from Cavan so it’s good for the county and good for the two of us and it’s live on TV as well.
“There’s never been two Cavan men against each other in professional boxing, this will go down in the history books. Owen is a Shercock man and I’m Drumgoon so there’s a derby there, it’s not even just a Cavan clash, it’s a derby clash.
“When Drumgoon and Shercock play it’s not the best team that wins, it’s who’s the hungrier and that’s what this fight is going to come down to – who’s the hungrier - and that’s going to be me. I tasted defeat in my last fight and it was either take a few months off and reflect on it or jump back straight into it.
“I looked back on the fight, I saw my mistakes and I was gutted because I wouldn’t say I was beaten by the better boxer, I was beaten by the hungrier boxer on the night – he wanted it that bit more than me. He never stopped throwing punches and, when I look back, it makes me hungrier so you’ll see a very hungry Dominic Donegan at the Europa Hotel and I’ll do anything that I can to get that decision.”
OWEN Duffy beat his Cavan rival Dominic Donegan when they met as amateurs and he knows him very well from their early sporting days in boxing and GAA.
They have worked out together and Duffy’s current coach Frank McMahon previously trained Donegan so there’s not a lot they don’t know about each other. Duffy had his hand raised when they met previously and he is confident of making it 2-0 at the Europa.
“100 per cent,” he says.
“I wouldn’t take this fight if I didn’t think I was going to win it. My goal is to get an Irish title so this (fighting Donegan) is the hurdle that’s in the way and I’ve no doubt that my ability will get me over it. I’m a southpaw, I’m awkward, I’m comfortable as a counter-boxer, I’m intense and I’m fast and my coach has been working with sitting down on my punches and working on my power shots as well.
“Knowing of Dominic from the past, you can expect fireworks in this one, I’d say at some point there will be a time when that will happen.”
They are near-neighbours but Duffy insists that he doesn’t regard the unique clash as about “bragging rights”.
“At the end of the day: ‘Who are we?’” he asks.
“We’re just two boxers who have high dreams who work hard and train hard. We are the ones who are putting the work in, we’re striving to see how far we can get in boxing and we both have the same kind of business in the fitness game back home and we’re making an impact and helping people locally – Dominic is doing a great job from what I’m hearing.
“Do those people want us to be sticking the finger up to each other? I don’t think so; I think it’s just the pressure you put on yourself. At the end of the day, we’re too busy focussing on how far we can get to be worried about what someone else thinks.
“No doubt there will be bragging rights with some people – that’s just the way it is – but in my eyes it’s another hurdle, another step on the journey. It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in my career and this is the big hurdle that gives me an Irish title shot.
“This is what I’ve been after the last two years. The last two years I’ve been asking the promoters to get me Owen O’Neill or Dominic Donegan, I want these fights. There was no feedback coming back to me for two years but I said: ‘My days of fighting journeymen are over, that was at the start of my career’. I’m not getting any younger, I lost nearly three years’ in lockdown and I want to challenge myself.”
