Andre Donovan’s first shift begins at 5 a.m. That's when he reports to an aluminum foundry, working in a department called “Knockout,” where they break the aluminum out of its mold.
The irony of that department’s name is not at all lost on Donovan, 12-2 (8 KOs), a 29-year-old bantamweight boxer from New Philadelphia, Ohio, about 50 miles south of Akron.
He clocks out from the Knockout at 1:30 p.m. Donovan’s day is far from over. If it’s his week with his three children, Donovan picks them up from daycare and school, spends a few hours with them at home, heads to the boxing gym, and returns for the kids’ bedtime routine.
“I want to be a present father,” Donovan told BoxingScene. “That’s always been my biggest thing. When I found out I was gonna be a dad, I was so terrified. And then outside of the crazy world that’s going on, I just kind of want to protect them and make their childhood seem not as crazy as the world actually is.”
If the children are with their mothers, then Donovan will pick up some shifts at a local fast-food restaurant, all so that he can support himself and his family.
Almost all of that – his primary job, his side job, the time he so values with his daughter and two sons – everything except his boxing has temporarily been put to the side for the first time in Donovan’s life.
Because now, after an eventful on-and-off 17 years in boxing, after the many up-and-down years in his life, Donovan is fighting internationally for the first time, challenging former world titleholder Jason Moloney in Australia.
The match will be the main event Thursday at Fortitude Music Hall in Fortitude Valley, near Brisbane, and will be broadcast on Stan Sport in Australia and UFC Fight Pass in the United States.
“I really want to get back to my kids,” Donovan said in mid-March, about five weeks out from the bout. “You know, it’s the first time I’ve actually had a fight camp. So I took a step away. Yeah, I’m ready to get back.”
This kind of fight camp is both a new luxury and a necessary – if painful – sacrifice. Donovan has been in Maryland since January, receiving guidance from trainer Bruce Babashan and former pro boxer Dusty Harrison. He’s sparred with a contender and several notable prospects. He has a nutritionist and is able to focus more on strength and conditioning. He is able to solely be Andre Donovan the fighter.
“Optimal time to train and rest each day. Not having to put on different hats. You know, be a construction worker in the morning and a dad at night. It’s strictly boxing,” he said. “I know it’s gonna be worth it. To come back home and present them the belt, they’re gonna enjoy that.
“My oldest, he already is. He goes to school and gets kind of like fame for me being his dad. He enjoys that as well. So this just adds on to it. They’re proud of me. And my hometown’s proud of me. They believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. I kind of just put the footwork in and did what they said I could do.”
There is quite a contrast between Moloney and Donovan. For understandable reasons, Moloney is the betting favorite and Donovan the underdog.
It’s not just that Moloney is fighting in his home country while Donovan traveled halfway across the world. Moloney, 28-4 (20 KOs), has competed and succeeded at a much higher level.
Moloney, 35, is a former bantamweight titleholder who is looking to make another run at a belt. His first two title shots brought his first two defeats: a narrow split decision against Emmanuel Rodriguez in 2018 and a seventh-round knockout against Naoya Inoue in 2020.
But in May 2023, Moloney took a majority decision over Vincent Astrolabio and took home the vacant WBO belt. Alas, his reign lasted only about a year. In his second defense, Moloney traveled to Tokyo and was unanimously outpointed by Yoshiki Takei in May 2024. That was immediately followed by a decision defeat against Tenshin Nasukawa in February 2025, also in Tokyo.
This past December, Moloney returned to fighting in Australia and returned to the win column, scoring a fourth-round TKO of the 14-2 Herlan Gomez on the undercard of Jai Opetaia-Huseyin Cinkara. Moloney is currently ranked seventh by the WBC, ninth by the IBF and 10th by the WBO.
Donovan is unranked. Although he started boxing at 12, he doesn’t have the same amateur pedigree as other prospects and contenders. He hasn’t fought anyone you’ve heard of. He’s grown along the way, learning lessons, gaining confidence, getting education and experience from sparring sessions and fight nights.
“I never got the opportunity to rise in the amateurs and then get the notoriety after that when I made my pro move,” Donovan said. “I kind of took a longer road that’s less traveled. I really believe in my skill set, and I’ve acquired some people around me that also believe. I just always trusted, you know, good things come to those who work hard and wait. So I’ve just been working hard outside of my opportunities. And then when opportunity presents itself, that's whenever we rise to the occasion – that’s why we took this fight.”
Donovan points out that he grew up training in a more rural area, not a gym in the inner city. But he grew up fatherless, and the praise he got from his coach when he won, or beat someone up, or took a beating, made him feel like he was doing something right. Except Donovan got caught up in negative outside influences. He competed in only one amateur tournament, quit boxing when he was 15 or 16, and returned to the sport at 18.
“I had one fight after that and I lost, and then I got back into the street life,” Donovan said. “I came back to amateur boxing at 21 when I got out of rehab for hanging around the wrong crowd – that’s a story for another time. I ended up doing the Golden Gloves after that and made fifth in the national tournament, and then shortly after, we turned pro.”
Donovan credits becoming a father at a young age – his oldest son is 10 – with saving his life. And boxing absolutely helped.
“If it wasn’t for me finding out I had a kid, and my friends and family dragging me to the boxing gym, because they didn’t want to see a talent wasted, we wouldn’t be here,” he said.
He decided to turn pro in 2019, though his debut was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Donovan’s first pro bout instead took place in October 2021. It was a first-round TKO.
His next two bouts, however? Both losses.
Perhaps Donovan was fighting too high above his ideal weight. Or maybe he was taking on opposition that he just wasn’t ready for. One bout was at lightweight against a 4-0 foe. The other was back down at junior featherweight against a 2-0 opponent. Each ended in a unanimous decision defeat.
“There was a time where everybody around me kind of questioned, like, ‘You know, you’re not undefeated no more,’ and it just wasn’t looking good,” Donovan said. “People kind of asked why I was doing what I was doing, and I'm like, ‘It’s just kind of the business.’ Anybody can look at BoxRec and see the fights I was fighting and know that [with] my size and stature, I shouldn’t have been in [those bouts]. So we just made a minor course adjustment and kept to the plan. That’s what I’ve continued to do all my life.”
Donovan has since won 11 straight, not including one cut-shortened no-contest. He is coming off a yearlong layoff, however. Donovan says fights were signed but ended up being canceled, so he was in the gym during this period, working with his primary trainer, former fighter Lee Kreisher.
And Donovan can see the improvements, the difference between who he is now and who he was when he debuted four and a half years ago.
“My ring IQ has increased significantly,” Donovan said. “Just the way I look at boxing now, I kind of want to make it my full-time career. I’ve always wanted to be a full-time fighter, and I haven’t been able to. And the way to do that is to take the big fights, on this big stage, and prove that I belong, that I’m exactly where I need to be.”
A year ago, Donovan was in the ring with a 38-25-1 opponent. Now he is taking on a talented former world titleholder.
“I’ve watched him for a couple years now,” Donovan said. “It’s kind of surreal sometimes, and funny, because you watch these people on TV, and you don’t realize, like, one day I’m gonna be fighting them. But the opportunity is here now. He’s not the Jason Moloney that I watched on TV. He is now the next obstacle in my path.
“He’s the best fighter I’ve ever fought. He’ll be the biggest test in my career thus far. I don’t overlook that. I think we’ve made the preparations to handle whatever he throws at us. And I know he's doing the same. If they've watched me, any of my fights, he knows what to expect. I’m not an easy walkover, and if he overlooks me in any aspect, it’s gonna be his downfall.
“He’s an all-around good boxer: footwork, defense, offense. Like, everything he does is very well. What I see in beating him is my resilience. I think I can make the small adjustments and keep up with him and eventually edge him out.”
When he’s at his day job, Donovan clocks in at the Knockout department at 5 a.m. This fight’s broadcast will start at 4 a.m. ET. It may not be a knockout for Donovan, but any type of win against Moloney would be huge – for him, for his family and for their futures.
He won’t just be the blue-collar worker who breaks aluminum out of its mold. He’ll be the boxer with a breakout performance.
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
