{"id":590088,"date":"2026-05-18T06:17:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/590088\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T06:17:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:17:24","slug":"paddy-donovan-limerick-man-wins-ibf-welterweight-world-title-final-eliminator-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/590088\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddy Donovan: Limerick man wins IBF welterweight world title final eliminator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ireland&#8217;s Paddy Donovan took a major step towards a second crack at world honours with victory over Ukraine&#8217;s Karen Chukhadzhian in a final eliminator for the IBF welterweight title in Mannheim, Germany.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Donovan, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/c89dgx3jnzxo\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">lost to Lewis Crocker in a fight for the vacant title last September<\/a>, scored two knockdowns on his way to a majority decision verdict &#8211; 115-111, 114-112, 113-113.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Crocker makes the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/c87q34xg0q8o\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first defence of the title against Liam Paro<\/a> in Brisbane, Australia on 24 June and Donovan is now in line to face the winner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Limerick man improves to 15 wins with two defeats &#8211; both to Crocker with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/articles\/cqjd41g0ee4o\" class=\"ssrcss-1fqyhkk-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">first by way of disqualification<\/a> in May 2025 &#8211; and is keen to face the Belfast man for a third time,<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I wanted to put on a tremendous performance for the fans and now [get] back for the trilogy &#8211; come on Lewis Crocker,&#8221; he told DAZN after.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Chukhadzhian was also seeking to return to a world title fight having lost to former champion Jaron &#8216;Boots&#8217; Ennis in 2024 &#8211; his second defeat by the American &#8211; but the 30-year-old&#8217;s record now slips to 26-4.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It was a tentative start, but Donovan&#8217;s fast hands saw him land a couple of crisp shots out of his southpaw stance with Chukhadzhian seeking to solve the puzzle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Ukrainian began to apply more pressure in the second but was open to the counters and a was picked off with a counter left hook at the end of the third that had him on unsteady legs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Donovan was boxing with patience, seeking to draw the mistake and counter without applying much by way of pressure, but his speed and accuracy was telling with Chukhadzhian unable to get much going of his own.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That speed told in the sixth as Donovan drew the Ukranian in and on the spin, delivered a left hand that dropped Chukhadzhian who did beat the count comfortably, but was beginning to look more frustrated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Chukhadzhian was given a count in the eighth when countered again, but this time protested he had been pushed over, yet there seemed to be an awareness he was now a long way back on the cards and needed to go for broke.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That he did as he began to apply pressure on the inside, this now a fight on his terms as he rallied well, but had given himself too much to do as Donovan saw it out to claim victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland&#8217;s Paddy Donovan took a major step towards a second crack at world honours with victory over Ukraine&#8217;s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-590088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}