By Jonny Stapleton

Martin Rogan claims he will prove to be the iceberg that sinks Tyson Fury’s Irish title hopes when the pair met on the 100^thanniversary of the Titanic’s demise this Saturday night.

The Belfast fighter believes just like the mammoth lump of ice that sunk the ‘unsinkable ship’ he will beat the ‘unbeatable fighter’

The 40 year old fight veteran hinted his 23 year old opponent posses the same arrogance as the makers of the Titanic and is over looking his upcoming challenge.

The Iron Man warned the undefeated former British and Commonwealth champion it won’t be plain sailing in the Odyssey this weekend and told him to focus on his next port of call, the Irish title fight and not a far off world title shot.

“It is fantastic the fight is on the 14^th. The amount of Belfast people who put the effort into building it… such a massive ship. “The unsinkable”- it reminds me so much of Tyson Fury, “the unbeatable”, who on the same night is going to get hit by me and they’ll call me the iceberg because when I hit him, he’s going down too,” Rogan said at today’s press conference.

“I think, reading through the lines, that Mr Fury has overlooked me once again. He thinks it’s going to be an easy win for him, but I think he’s going to find out it’s not going to be. There will only be one true Irishman lifting the belt and it’s going to be Martin Rogan.”

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The comedy that dominated the press conference to launch the show was no more and there was a niggle in the air, as the  fighters exchanged verbal blows. Fury did strip to portray the benefits of his training regime and questioned Rogan’s age.

The Entertainer, however, was adamant he is still able to perform and claims he is in the shape of his life. The inaugural Prizefighter winner was keen to show he means business, ‘Unfinished Business’ if you will, but claimed there will be a pantomime element to Saturday’s fight night. The 40 year old says people will be entertained by the site of the giant heavyweight running from Belfast’s own.

When asked how training went Rogan enthused:

“Can you not visibly see? It’s absolutely brilliant. I’m sure a lot of people have question marks over the age and everything else – I’m sure Tyson has also questioned it himself –because a lot of things go on in a fighter’s head and that will be one of the things that he’ll be thinking: “Martin’s over the hill and he’s been around the block and he’s scared of me.” But realistically, come Saturday night there will be a pantomime and that will be Tyson Fury on his tip-toes running away from me. He’s said to me on a few occasions “train well, train well” – I hope he’s trained well because I certainly have.”

The former Commonwealth champion, who fights with a metal bar in his neck after suffering a similar injury to Irish rugby player Rory Best, is delighted to be fighting in a high profile contest once again. However is adamant he isn’t there to make up the numbers and has targeted victory and subsequently a place in the world top ten.

Speaking at today press conference ‘Big Roggie’ added.

“The only thing I can say, in a sporting gesture, is at least he’s 23 and he can come back from the defeat. He’s in the top 10, unfortunately I’m not in that top 10 but I will be on Saturday night and it will be great to be back up there again at my age and put the young boy in his place. He lets things go to his head, being six-foot nine. He forgets one thing, his chin is not up at six-foot nine– he might have a long face, his face is pretty long – but his chin is at six-foot three which is perfect for my hand.”