Welterweight contender Paddy Donovan is enjoying the pre-fight mind games with Lewis Crocker who he faces in a 12-rounder on March 1 at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
When the press conference occurred, therefore, it was no surprise that Limerick, Ireland’s Donovan had a trick up his sleeve to surprise his 28-year-old opponent.
“He’s known by an abbreviation of his surname, Croc. So, they call him the crocodile,” Donovan, 26, told BoxingScene of his opponent. “Me and Andy were in the gym one day and I said I might wear a Crocodile Dundee hat or something.”
That conversation with his coach and former fighter Andy Lee led to Donovan showing up in an outfit more fitting for Halloween than a press conference. In a way, it put his mind at ease.
“There’s a lot of mind games to the sport. There’s a lot of who gets the upper hand. Can you see weakness in your opponent? Do you see him being a little bit fragile?” Donovan, 26 years old and 14-0 (11 KOs), said. “I try to change my personality for the press conference and not show my cards.”
Donovan went on to explain that you can learn a lot in a press conference. The demeanor and the temperament of a fighter can be seen on full display. These are things he tries to conceal. Training in Saudi Arabia with his trainer Lee, who also coaches heavyweight Joseph Parker, Donovan sees this as a next level fight as the start of better things to come.
“It may be not be a make-or-break fight, but it’s a fight that if I can go from Irish stardom to world stardom in the welterweight division, it would be great,” Donovan said. “It puts us in a position that both of us could only dream about. Eddie Hearn has been talking about the IBF world title and how it will be vacant and he’ll bring it to Ireland for the winner. There’s a lot on the line.”
The IBF welterweight title is currently held by Jaron “Boots” Ennis. Ennis will unify April 12 in Philadelphia against Eimantas Stanionis. Donovan is currently ranked number five by the IBF. Donovan believes Belfast’s Crocker, 20-0 (11 KOs), isn’t confident in himself to beat him.
“I think deep down Crocker knows he can’t beat me,” Donovan said. “I think he’s going to try and put it on me for a couple of rounds, but deep down, I don’t think he’ll have what it takes to beat me. I think he knows that I can do absolutely everything he can do and the things that I can do he surely cannot do.”
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