Lewis Crocker walked away with the win on March 1 when he faced Paddy Donovan at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland. However, the latter was in control throughout their IBF welterweight title eliminator, dominating and dropping the local fighter twice.
The first knockdown came in the final minute of the eighth round from a right hook-left uppercut combination. The Belfast native, who suffered a cut above his right eye and another below his left, went down for the second time right after the bell, following a big right hook from the southpaw from Ennis, Ireland, which concluded a flurry of punches.
Referee Marcus McDonnell, who had deducted a point from Donovan in both the sixth and eighth rounds for use of the head, waved it off and disqualified the 26-year-old.
Going into the eighth round, the judges’ scores were 69-63, 67-65, and 69-63, all in favor of Donovan.
“Listen to the crowd; they can tell you,” said Paddy Donovan, who dropped to 14-1 with 11 KOs. “I won the fight. I was winning every single round. I dropped Lewis, I beat him up, and I was getting a knockout.”
“He said I hit him after the bell. I thought I hit him on the bell. You can see Lewis was a beaten man. I won the fight fair and square. The ref took my dreams away tonight.”
28-year-old Lewis Crocker, who improved to 21-0 with 11 KOs, said, “That’s not the way I want to win a fight. I heard the bell, and I can’t see because I’ve been getting hit with the head. I dropped my hands, and that’s what caused the knockdown.”
“Our plan was to work in the second half of the fight. I was repeatedly hit with the head, got hit with the elbow at one stage, but that’s not how I want to win a fight.”
In the co-feature, Craig Richards (19-4-1, 12 KOs) of England stopped Padraig McCrory (19-2, 9 KOs) of Northern Ireland in the eighth round at light heavyweight.
Among other Crocker vs Donovan results, Northern Ireland’s Kurt Walker (12-0, 2 KOs) defeated Leon Woodstock (16-4, 7 KOs) of England by majority decision at featherweight. The scores were 95-95, 97-93, and 96-94.
Additionally, Steven Ward (15-3, 5 KOs) of Northern Ireland TKO’d Belfast-based London native Tommy McCarthy (21-7, 10 KOs) in the sixth round at cruiserweight.