Former European amateur medallist Eric Donovan has extended his pro record to 4-0 at the National Stadium on Saturday night.
The Kildare featherweight stopped Hungarian Laszlo Horvath in the fourth round of their headline bout in the capital.
Five-time Irish elite amateur champion Donovan is hoping to build towards a European professional title shot as the 31-year-old seeks to move quickly in the paid ranks.
The Athy native had made a dash from RTÉ studios to the South Circular Road venue as Donovan was working as an analyst for the delayed coverage of Michael Conlan’s win in Chicago earlier in the day.
Fighting in his first scheduled eight-rounder, Donovan sized up his journeyman opponent - who carried a 4-5 record into the bout - in the opening round before landing some clean head shots towards the end of the stanza.
The fatal blow. Great fight @eric_donovan60. Looking forward to getting stuck in to editing the story of #LilywhiteLightning soon pic.twitter.com/QtUY2NTwBj
— Eoin Lúc Ó Ceallaigh (@EoinLuc) May 27, 2017
Donovan had Horvath down twice in the second, hurting the Hungarian to the body on both occasions but the brave visitor managed to see out the round.
The southpaw had claimed in the build-up to the bout that he would like to bank some rounds in an effort to up his pro experience and he threw a variety of combinations as he teed off on Horvath in the third.
The Hungarian – a replacement opponent after Spaniard Juan Luis Gonzalez was forced to withdraw from the bout - had been stopped in four of his five previous losses and he took a fair amount of punishment as Donovan dominated the contest.
Horvath managed to land a few punches on the Kildare man’s chin in the latter half of the fourth round, which appeared to anger Donovan and he dropped the Hungarian once again with a body shot moments later. And referee Emilie Tiedt waived the fight off at 2mins 19seconds of the round.
While Horvath was clearly limited, the bout was a welcome learning fight for Donovan.
Six debutants featured on the ‘Celtic Clash 2’ fight card in the capital, while 15 bouts were staged in all on a busy bill.
