6th July Doncaster Dome

[fightacademy]

Gavin Mcdonnell v Ross Burkinshaw
John Fewkes v Dale Miles
Andrew Townend v Craig Johnson
Sam Sheedy v Harry Mathews
Tommy Coward v Max Maxwell

14 fights 5 good little fights there alone

[blade02_02]

These look good fights especially fewkes n miles be interestining fight

[curtis wood]

They look like good fights, ill be down at that for definite

[James Harte]

Fewkes v Miles has the potential to be a cracker!

[Autobarn]

so how promising is jamie mcdonnell's twin brother gavin mcdonnell? is he going to be a threat to quigg and frampton?

i know someone who was in the same year at school as them, and gavin was the bigger talent, but apparently wasn't as disciplined, or got in some trouble?

jamie seems to have got good due to strong domestic competition, long, hard fights and tremendous schooling in the basics.


also what are fewkey and burkinshaw doing back - i thought they were both finished / not into their boxing anymore after one of two disappointing showings?

[fightacademy]

so how promising is jamie mcdonnell's twin brother gavin mcdonnell? is he going to be a threat to quigg and frampton?

i know someone who was in the same year at school as them, and gavin was the bigger talent, but apparently wasn't as disciplined, or got in some trouble?

jamie seems to have got good due to strong domestic competition, long, hard fights and tremendous schooling in the basics.


also what are fewkey and burkinshaw doing back - i thought they were both finished / not into their boxing anymore after one of two disappointing showings?

troubler??

Gavin has never been in trouble only trouble was getting him out the pub and in a gym... iv sorted that one

[Parson Cross]

Auto,
Ross has had to contend with a couple of very serious injuries but is back and ready to rumble.
As regards Fewkey - keep up ! Check his record and a few older threads. He's back and at it.
Neither are finished.

[Mimmy]

tickets info please

[fightacademy]

tickets info please

tickets are tiered seating £35 or £60 ringside with meal and waitress service

[Glass Joe]

isn't this on 7th saturday?

[Andy]

Saturday 6th

[Glass Joe]

cool think i will watch thompson beat price instead, have a great show

[fightacademy]

cool think i will watch thompson beat price instead, have a great show

lol thank you

[whiskey]

troubler??

Gavin has never been in trouble only trouble was getting him out the pub and in a gym... iv sorted that one

Gavin McDonnell talks to Livefight.com “I’m going to make my own name in boxing”
28.02.13

By Michael J Jones

Jamie McDonnell is a world-rated bantamweight contender who cleared up in Europe and awaits a fully-deserved world title shot for the IBF title. Nine-minute older twin brother Gavin McDonnell, while very proud of his better-known sibling, turned pro later and is eagerly chasing the title success of his twin.

While Jamie turned pro in 2005 and endured a rough pro apprenticeship, his identical brother drifted away from boxing in his late teens. However, buoyed by his brother’s successes, Gavin decided to rededicate himself, got back in fighting shape and joined Jamie in the pro ranks in late 2010.

Since making his comeback, 26-year-old Gavin has made steady progress at 7-0-1 (2) and has already bagged the Central Area and British Masters titles and also fights a lot like his twin. Fighting style isn’t the only similarity between the two as I was to find out during my call to Gavin.

On April 19th in his hometown of Doncaster, the super-bantamweight takes on arguably his toughest test yet in a British title eliminator against North Wales' more-experienced Paul Economides.

I caught up with Gavin in the early stages of his preparation for the bout, here’s what he had to tell Livefight-

LF) You fight Economides next, do you know much about him?

GM) I’ve not seen much of him but enough to know what he’s about. I watched him sparring our Jamie and I know he’s good for ten rounds (having gone the distance on four occasions). Unless I can force a late stoppage I think the fight will go the full ten.

LF) How do you plan to fight him, at range or in close?

GM) I’m easy with either, I can jab, move and box but I also like it on the inside. I like fighting up close a bit too much but me and my team will have a game-plan and I’ll be sticking to it.

LF) One thing that’s going for you; you can always count on quality sparring?

GM) Yeah you can’t get much better than our kid and we’ve had some real wars in the gym. Just a while ago we’d not been in the gym for a bit so me and Jamie went at it and knocked ten bells out of each other! I always enjoy sparring him.

LF) When your brother turned pro you left boxing for a while. Why was that?

GM) I just got to that age in my teens where I was into what everybody else my age was doing. I had no intention to turn pro as it really didn’t appeal to me then.
While I was wasting my days Jamie was doing well and it was watching his success which made me decide to return to boxing. Deciding to comeback has changed me for the better and I’ve never looked back.

LF) Do you ever wonder about if you had turned pro earlier?

GM) Yeah all the time…nearly every conversation with our kid. I think “if I’d have started two years earlier where would I be now?”

I’m still only just coming up to 27 now though so there’s still plenty of years for me to make my mark. As I’m a late starter, I probably train the hardest in the gym and I’m probably more of a man than our kid was turning pro (in terms of physically).

LF) There’s a few similarities between you and Jamie in your boxing careers isn’t there?

GM) Yeah we both drew our fifth fight (Jamie to Dai Davies and Gavin to Ash Lane both fights in Doncaster over four rounds), we both got our first knock-out in our seventh fight and also stopped our eighth opponent. He keeps reminding me that he lost his tenth fight (to Chris Edwards) and I say “don’t be putting that in my head!”

LF) You also box a lot like your brother, where do you feel the two of you are different as fighters?

GM) I’ve never really thought about it. I do look up to (Jamie) as a fighter and try and pick things up from what he’s doing. Jamie’s just a really well-rounded fighter who can box at range and up close, is strong, fit…the only thing he doesn’t have is that one big punch to knock opponents out. He usually ends up grinded his opponents down.


LF) While you obviously are very close and admire your brother is it also important to become known in your own right?

GM) That’s the aim and it’s starting to happen now. People used to look at me and say “is that Jamie McDonnell?” Now they say “which one of the McDonnell brothers is that?”

My confidence is growing and I know I can go places and make my own name. I believe I can get to where (Jamie McDonnell) is at some point and I’m training very hard. Jamie did it the hard way but always came good in the end.

LF) Let’s talk about your recent fights. Last September you stopped undefeated Scott Gladwin in the sixth for the Central Area title. What can you tell me about that fight?

GM) When that fight came about we were both unbeaten and people were saying afterwards that he hadn’t been in top shape but, look, I knew nothing about him beforehand he could have been like Tyson for all I knew! He was strong early-on but I was catching him with certain punches and I caught him with a good one (in the sixth) and the ref stopped it.

That was my first stoppage, Stefy Bull (Gavin and Jamie’s trainer) said to me “you won’t stop your early opponents as they’ll be tough journeymen, but when you fight guys like yourself, the stoppages will come.” He was right as I’ve stopped my last two.

LF) And what about your follow up stoppage of Dean Anderson last December?

GM) That was another good win, the first six rounds he was very strong and kept on me. He could whack and was trying to reach my body but he never caught me with too many and after a while I started picking him off.

From the sixth it was one-sided and I couldn’t seem to miss even though it was killing me to jab as I’d hurt my (left) hand. They pulled him out after the eighth but one more round and I would have stopped him anyway.

LF) Have you had a think about what could happen providing you come through this British eliminator?

GM) Well I don’t think Scott Quigg will stay at British level much longer. He’s up there (world-rated) with Carl Frampton and I don’t think there’ll be much in it for (Quigg) fighting me I think he’ll be chasing a world title fight.

If the title goes vacant I’m not sure who I will be matched with. Jazza Dickens is a name people talk about so maybe it would be him and me for the British title.

If Quigg doesn’t vacate I’ll leave it to Stefy to decide what route we’ll take. Quigg is probably a level above me at the moment but I’m the type that would fight anyone; we’d be the same weight and only the two of us in the ring at the end of the day.

I’ll leave it to Stefy and go down the path he wants me to go down.

LF) Good luck for the year ahead Gavin.

GM) Ok thanks anytime.