{"id":232237,"date":"2025-10-22T10:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T10:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/232237\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T10:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T10:34:11","slug":"limerick-homecoming-for-donovan-and-hedderman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/232237\/","title":{"rendered":"Limerick Homecoming for Donovan and Hedderman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Professional boxing could be heading back to Limerick, hints Jim Donovan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new to the scene pro moved to 2-0 in Letterkenny last weekend and is hopeful his third trip to the ring could be in his home county. <\/p>\n

The 21-year-old says he could head home with fellow Treaty man Kian Hedderman<\/a> and bring a pro show to Munster County for the first time, Willie Casey and Andy Lee.<\/p>\n

\u201cLimerick has missed out on professional boxing for years, Donovan noted. \u201cThere are some great fighters there like Paddy,\u00a0Eddie\u00a0(Donovan, Jim\u2019s brother and Paddy\u2019s brother), me, and\u00a0Kian Henderman. There hasn\u2019t been a professional fight night in Limerick for years and something should be done. Boxing fans in Munster and Limerick are hectic. Any venue in Limerick will fill out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fighting in his second pro fight only five weeks after his professional debut in Letterkenny last weekend, Donovan blasted out\u00a0Bartlomiej Wlodarczyk, dropping the Pole in the opening round with a nifty left and closing the show with a picture-perfect right at the 1:44 mark of round one.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cA new day, new experience,\u201d Donovan described his pro boxing debut in Ireland. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a tough opponent who came to win, but obviously, skills pay the bills. I feel like I\u2019ve been a pro for the last four or five years because I\u2019ve been in a professional boxing gym since I was 14 years old. The debut was a long time coming and hopefully, I\u2019ll be 3-0 by the end of the year with a big 2026 coming.<\/p>\n

\u201cAndy\u00a0(Lee,\u00a0James\u2019 head trainer and co-manager) is the mastermind behind it all and a big thank you to my manager,\u00a0Keith Sullivan, too. My two training camps as a professional boxer have been with Paddy for his big one and\u00a0Joseph Parker\u00a0for his fight this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking on his display, his manager, Keith Sullivan, said: A great performance. An excellent showing in Windsor Park, and tonight he got his first knockout. Jim Donovan is a diamond in the rough. He\u2019s going to be the next Irish superstar and carry the Donovan name in front of the big Irish boxing crowd. But there\u2019s only one Jim Donovan!<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some irons in the fire if it doesn\u2019t happen in Limerick so we can get him to 3-0 before the end of this year,\u201d Sullivan concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Professional boxing could be heading back to Limerick, hints Jim Donovan. The new to the scene pro moved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,139756,139757,30029,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-232237","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-edward-donovan","12":"tag-jim-donovan","13":"tag-paddy-donovan","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}