Eric Donovan predicts Katie Taylor will be in one of the toughest fights of her life against Amanda Serrano.
Prior to the 2012 London Olympics, Donovan flew to Italy to spar Taylor ahead of her debut Games - ultimately those practice rounds prepared the Bray boxer to face southpaw Sofya Ochigava in the final, which Taylor famously won.
Like Ochigava, Serrano is also a southpaw and, coincidentally, Donovan will be in Madison Square Garden to witness the big fight on April 30.
"Reluctantly I went to Italy as Katie’s sparring partner," said the veteran pro. "I wanted to go to the Olympics myself, but I had to lick my wounds, take my medication and accept it.
"I always wanted to go to America to a big fight. It has on my to do list, and so this is it. I never imagined it would be a female main event but it is with the one and only Katie Taylor.
"She brought in a good sparring spar (to her training camp in Connecticut). I've used him himself – Myles Casey.
"He's a southpaw, he's smart, clever enough and he's a puncher and that’s a good sparring partner to have.
‘She will respect his power that’s for sure - and I think Serrano is going to have power too.’
Donovan believes that Taylor is up against Serrano at a time when the American is not at the peak of her powers, but when she will be fresh.
He hopes that Taylor, with so much mileage on the clock, can deal with that.
"It's going to be hard," he said. "Some of Katie’s hardest contests have been against southpaw boxers.
"Ochigava, the Russian who she beat in the 2012 Olympic final, was a southpaw. We know how close that Olympic final was.
"Serrano is going to be very clever. I don’t think Serrano has been in with the same level of opposition as Katie.
"Serrano is a quality operator but I don’t think she has been operating at a high level for quite some time.
"She hasn’t been tested but that may not be a bad thing – it may mean she is fresh.
"Katie has been in a lot of tough fights recently, particularly the two fights against Define Persoon.
"Those fights take… I’m not joking, even after my own fights and the ones who win and the ones you lose, a professional boxing match takes something from you every time.
"It takes something from you, whether it is a bit of energy, a bit of timing. It kind of takes something from you.
"I just think Katie will find this fight very difficult so hopefully she can pull it off. Sometimes in boxing – we seen it with Carl Frampton, he just became old overnight in the fight against Jamel Herring...as a fighter you just don’t know when your time is up.
"I had the best intentions going into my last fight against (Robeisy) Ramirez.
"I trained hard, I worked my ass off. I genuinely believed that I was going to win the fight but If I’m not going to the fight I am going to give him a good run for his money and my lowest expectation was to go the distance.
"And I ended up getting stopped in the third round and I was like, ‘what the hell happened here’. But look, that is boxing."
As for himself, Donovan will continue his own preparations while in the States for his next fight in Belfast on May 22.
It could be his last - he has between one and three contests left in him, with a European title his final ambition - although he doesn't yet know the identity of his next opponent.
"I believe it is going to be somebody sturdy and strong and more a less a journeyman who will just bring me round," the Athy man admitted.
"This is more or less a comeback fight to set me up for a European shot down the road. I can’t get a European shot now because my last fight was a knock out loss.
"The plan is to get back to winning ways. I would love to get in and fight for a European title now but my manager Mark Dunlop is in charge of the logistics side of it and he said we have to get a win.
"We need a win and then hopefully late summer, early autumn I will get a crack at a European title and try and make a dream come through."
