{"id":129927,"date":"2026-01-01T13:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T18:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=129927"},"modified":"2026-01-01T13:07:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T18:07:31","slug":"illness-forces-paddy-donovan-to-withdraw-from-ibf-welterweight-world-eliminator-boxing-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=129927","title":{"rendered":"Illness Forces Paddy Donovan To Withdraw From IBF Welterweight World Eliminator &#8211; Boxing News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1545664804358300\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block; text-align: center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1545664804358300\" data-ad-slot=\"8616314829\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=129927\" rel=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=129927\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-129928 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Paddy-Donovan.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"265\" height=\"191\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Irish welterweight contender Paddy \u201cThe Real Deal\u201d Donovan (14-2, 11 KOs) has had to withdraw from his planned January 16th, 12-round International Boxing Federation (IBF) World Welterweight Title Eliminator against Australian Liam Paro (26-1, 16 KO) in Australia. Due to a significant illness that sidelined Donovan from training and sparring for more than three weeks, he had to withdraw.<\/p>\n<p>The winner of the Jan. 16 fight between No. 2 rated Paro and No. 3 Donovan would have been designated as the No. 1, mandatory challenger for IBF Welterweight World Champion Lewis \u201cThe Croc\u201d Crocker (22-0, 11 KOs), against whom Donovan has previously lost two highly disputed, heartbreaking matches in Crocker\u2019s hometown in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Donovan has won 18 of 20 rounds versus Crocker only to be gutted once again, unable to fight in the IBF Eliminator.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m extremely disappointed to have to withdraw from the fight,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cI was confident of beating Paro. I missed three weeks of training due to illness and my coach, Andy (Lee), took the decision out of my hands. I want to apologize to all the fans in Australia who were looking forward to the fight. I will be back stronger in 2026. I wish Paro well and hope that we can fight in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we don\u2019t learn from our mistakes then we are doomed to repeat them,\u201d added Lee, who also co-manages Donovan with NYC-based Atty. Keith Sullivan. \u201cI\u2019ve been in this situation before with my other boxers and it never goes well. There was no way Paddy could train and fight with the viral chest and respiratory infection he had, so I made the decision to pull him out of the fight. Paddy is still one of the best welterweights in the world with a huge future in the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #808000;\"><a style=\"color: #808000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.authorhouse.com\/en\/bookstore\/bookdetails\/232300-BOXING-INTERVIEWS-OF-A-LIFETIME\">Click Here to Order Boxing Interviews Of A Lifetime By &#8220;Bad&#8221; Brad Berkwitt<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"wpforms-container wpforms-container-full\" id=\"wpforms-126533\"><form id=\"wpforms-form-126533\" class=\"wpforms-validate wpforms-form wpforms-ajax-form\" data-formid=\"126533\" method=\"post\" enctype=\"multipart\/form-data\" action=\"\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F129927\" data-token=\"a05e9f7c82ac6455439a9d3a456605ed\" data-token-time=\"1777252895\"><noscript class=\"wpforms-error-noscript\">Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.<\/noscript><div class=\"wpforms-field-container\"><div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-name\" data-field-id=\"1\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\">Name <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><div class=\"wpforms-field-row wpforms-field-medium\"><div class=\"wpforms-field-row-block wpforms-first wpforms-one-half\"><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-name-first wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1][first]\" required><label for=\"wpforms-126533-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-sublabel after\">First<\/label><\/div><div class=\"wpforms-field-row-block wpforms-one-half\"><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-last\" class=\"wpforms-field-name-last wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1][last]\" required><label for=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-last\" class=\"wpforms-field-sublabel after\">Last<\/label><\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_2-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-email\" data-field-id=\"2\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_2\">Email <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><input type=\"email\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_2\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][2]\" spellcheck=\"false\" required><\/div>\t\t<div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_4-container\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-text\"\n\t\t\tdata-field-type=\"text\"\n\t\t\tdata-field-id=\"4\"\n\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t<label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_4\" >or Email Name<\/label>\n\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_4\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium\" name=\"wpforms[fields][4]\" >\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_3-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-textarea\" data-field-id=\"3\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_3\">Comment or Message<\/label><textarea id=\"wpforms-126533-field_3\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium\" name=\"wpforms[fields][3]\" ><\/textarea><\/div><script>\n\t\t\t\t( function() {\n\t\t\t\t\tconst style = document.createElement( 'style' );\n\t\t\t\t\tstyle.appendChild( document.createTextNode( '#wpforms-126533-field_4-container { position: absolute !important; 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Due to a significant illness that sidelined Donovan from training and sparring for more than three weeks, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":129928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[33583],"class_list":["post-129927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-illness-forces-paddy-donovan-to-withdraw-from-ibf-welterweight-world-eliminator-boxing-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=129927"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/129928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=129927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=129927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=129927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}