Paddy Donovan set for third fight of 2024 in December as part of Huge Boxing’s Origin story

Irish contender Paddy Donovan is set to return to action in London on December 13.

Donovan, trained by former middleweight champion Andy Lee, is 14-0 (11 KOs) and believed to be on a collision course with Belfast’s Lewis Crocker for a date in 2025.

Donovan’s opponent at York Hall, Bethnal Green, will likely be announced next week, but he will be joined on the bill by Matchroom prospects George Liddard and Jimmy Sains, both trained by Tony Sims, as well as Maisey Rose Courtney and Shannon Ryan.

Limerick’s Donovan has had two outings in 2024, stopping Williams Andes Herrera in seven in January and halting Lewis Ritson in nine rounds in May. 

Matchroom are presently listed as the promoters for the event, but it is being put together by fight manager Charlie Sims, who is in the process of renewing his promoter’s license with the British Boxing Board of Control having moved back to England from Los Angeles. He will be the head of Huge Boxing when his license is processed on December 12.

Sims said he was looking to create a promotional company “that’s different” and while DAZN is an obvious option as a broadcast partner given his established relationship with Matchroom, Sims has fielded other offers and will make a decision early next week. 

He plans to do more shows next year, including another at York Hall on April 5, and wants to use the creative, story-telling he observed in LA in his finished product.

As such, he’s labeled the first show Origins, A New Dawn, but his long-form series will take fighters through the stages of their career, to chapters two and three, titled Destiny and Legacy respectively. 

Of Donovan, he said the idea is that the Irishman “needs a fight to give him some rounds,” while 9-0 (5 KOs) middleweight prospect Liddard will be the main event.

“I’m back now, when I was making that decision to come back, it was what am I going to do?” said Sims. “I felt like I needed a new challenge and I wanted to do something different.”