Welterweight contender Paddy Donovan has paid tribute to coach Andy Lee as one in the last of a \u201cdying breed\u201d of boxing teachers.<\/p>\n
The Irish duo is in mid-camp as Donovan prepares to face fellow Irishman Tyrone McKenna on September 5.<\/p>\n
Donovan is the leading contender for Liam Paro\u2019s IBF welterweight title but the opportunity to box on the huge Croke Park bill, topped by Katie Taylor in her farewell fight, while waiting for his shot has proved much for Donovan to resist.<\/p>\n
It means he is back in the gym with coach Andy Lee, and Donovan scoffs at the clich\u00e9 that there are no good teachers left in boxing \u2013 because he is learning every day.<\/p>\n
Lee is more than a coach. He is a mentor and friend to Donovan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, listen, without Andy, I\u2019d be in a strange place,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cI don\u2019t even want to say where I\u2019d be. I\u2019ve got a great team and he\u2019s been monumental to me. Keith Sullivan in America has been the same thing. These guys are keeping me up. It\u2019s not about what Andy is doing, I think, in the ring that matters, because when I turn up to train I\u2019ll always be the same. I\u2019m very very disciplined. I work extremely hard, but sometimes I can suffer outside the gym and I think Andy\u2019s done a great job managing me, like what Jose Mourinho did with Chelsea or Alex Ferguson did with Manchester United to all the players [as a man manger]. I think Andy is very very good at managing all of us in our own aspects individually, brilliantly. He\u2019s done a great job and I\u2019m still here. I\u2019m still fighting and I\u2019m still trying to keep on that path of becoming world champion, which is not easy. My god, it\u2019s not easy. I never thought it was. When you start any sport really, when you\u2019re a kid, you\u2019re enjoying the sport, you\u2019re doing it because you love it. But you kind of come to an age where things really change, your mindset really changes, problems start to come, family issues, blah blah blah, etc. But it goes for a lot of fighters. It\u2019s not easy. I didn\u2019t understand that it was going to be this tough, this challenging. But the main thing is just winning in the ring right now in my career and it\u2019s the most valuable thing that I can do right now, so Tyrone is in my way and it\u2019s probably the first fight where I feel like, not angry, but just want to get on with this. Get Tyrone out of the way and go win this world championship. Just as simple as that really. I know it\u2019s not an easy task to do, but my god, I\u2019m hungry now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donovan was impressive when he boxed in Germany to decision tough Karen Chukhadzhian in May, improving to 15-2 (11 KOs) after consecutive defeats to countryman Lewis Crocker.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Coach Lee has an astute boxing brain, was a decorated former amateur who then learned life as a pro from the great Emanuel Steward before moving to Adam Booth after the Detroit legend passed away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Andy\u2019s became a student himself under Emanuel Steward and under Adam Booth and I think Andy is a teacher, he\u2019s one of the best at what he does,\u201d Donovan added. \u201cHe\u2019s not just an exceptional coach, but let\u2019s just say maybe my story is not as dramatic as Mike Tyson and Cus D\u2019Amato, but without Cus D\u2019Amato, Tyson would have suffered early and Andy was that figure for me. Simple as.\u201d<\/p>\n
Are there moments in training when Donovan wonders what Lee learned from Steward and what he took from Booth?<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, in the lines of boxing-wise I always question that,\u201d he said. \u201cWell, for this camp I\u2019ve been training a bit like the way Emanuel would have trained Andy, I suppose. But then there\u2019s some fights where Andy has me on the pads and he\u2019d be a bit like Adam Booth. But as a teacher, I think he\u2019s so wise and intelligent. I think he has a bit of everything, a bit of Adam and a bit of Emanuel. I think Andy is just a different breed really. He\u2019s the last of a dying breed, the way he can manage, the way he can speak and the way he can act. Thankfully Andy\u2019s in my life.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welterweight contender Paddy Donovan has paid tribute to coach Andy Lee as one in the last of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[18592,2560,6102,42290,94087,8691,18591,18590,101,243787,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-737434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-andy-lee","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxing-scene","tag-croke-park","tag-katie-taylor","tag-lewis-crocker","tag-paddy-donovan","tag-sports","tag-tyrone-mckenna","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737434","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=737434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}