ON the brink of victory, Paddy Donovan snatched defeat in Belfast tonight, sensationally disqualified after landing a shot on Lewis Crocker after the bell for the end of the eighth round.
By that stage Donovan had been docked a point on two occasions, and undoubtedly the patience of referee Marcus McDonnell had worn very, very thin.
There is no question that the blow that led to the disqualification came after the bell had sounded, noticeably so, but the Donovan camp were still very aggrieved that such a severe sanction was taken.
On the night Donovan had been clearly the better fighter, having won the vast majority of the rounds. Crocker had suffered cuts from Donovan punches, had paid a visit to the canvas shortly before the disqualification, and at the time of the DQ it seemed he needed a miracle.
While there was no question who the superior boxer was on the night, Donovan lost a point in the sixth for use of the head after being warned several times, and he was docked another in the eighth.
However after that sanction he still put Crocker down with a powerful body shot and the Belfast man was in trouble. Crocker got to the end of the round, at which point Donovan landed to put him back on the canvas just after the bell and a frustrated McDonnell had had enough.
Predictably both fighters had different perspectives on the disqualification when interviewed in the ring afterwards. “That’s not the way I’d want to win a fight, but I’d heard the bell, I dropped my hands, and because I couldn’t see from the headbutts previous a punch came out of nowhere after the bell,” said Crocker.
Donovan felt the action had been one sided. “I won the fight, I was winning every single round. I dropped Lewis, I was beating him up and I was getting the knockout.”
He felt hard done by with the referee’s decision. “He said I hit him after the bell but I thought I hit him on the bell. You can see Lewis was a beaten man. I won the fight fair and square and the ref took my dreams away tonight.”
While there was immediately talk about an appeal and a rematch, for now Crocker is the mandatory challenger for the IBF world welterweight title.
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.