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WBO President had promised Dennis Hogan he would get a ‘fair decision’ in Mexico


Dennis Hogan has revealed that WBO PresidentĀ Francisco Varcarcel personally promised him a ‘fair decision’ if he traveled to Mexico to challenge Jaime Munguia.

As mandatory challenger for Munguia and the WBO light middleweight title, the Kildare man rightly points out he had power at the negotiating table.

The Brisbane-based light middle wasn’t susceptible to a ‘take it or leave it’ scenario and, worst case, he could have let the fight run to purse bids and hoped his promoters DDP won the rights to promote the bout.

At one stage in the build up purse bids looked a real option and when it became apparent Golden Boy and Zanfer Promotions wanted to put the fight on in Mexico, Team Hogan were not overly keen.

They feared their charge wouldn’t get a fair shake in the champion’s homeland and wanted the fight to play out in Australia as well as been open to America or even Ireland as venue. Indeed, the outfit set up by Paul Keegan and Danny Dimas were exploring financial backing from local government to allow a purse-winning bid.

However, the WBO went out of their way to assure ‘The Hurricane’ and his team that a “fair decision” wouldn’t be an issue, helping convince them to head to Mexico.

Indeed, the president of the Puerto Rican-based governing body gave his personal assurance that noting untoward would take place.

Hogan, who was extremely confident he could dethrone the heavy favourite, took the WBO at their word and agreed to make the trip into the lion’s den, something he may now regret doing following a controversial defeat.

The Kilcullen 34-year-old lived up to his end of the bargain producing a world title winning display only for the judges to prevent him realising his world title dream and securing his family’s future.

“We came here in good faith,” Hogan said after the heartbreaking defeat.

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“I am number one mandatory we could have done a lot more to get this fight somewhere else. I was assured by the [WBO] supervisor we would get a fair decision.

“I was told by the WBO President ‘I’ll be down there, you will get a fair decision’. So we said ‘okay, we will do it in good faith’. We got let down.”

Hogan, his team, the wider public, and many noted figures within in the sport, have been calling for the fighter to be awarded a rematch.

Hogan is adamant that, if it is to happen again, it won’t be playing out in Mexico.

“It’s only fair we do it in Australia now after what happened,” he declared.

“Instantly we were offered a rematch by the Mexican promoter [Fernando Beltran, Zanfer]. I said yes straight away lets do it somewhere where we will get a fair decision.”

Speaking with regard to the rematch, Hogan’s promoter Paul Keegan echoed that sentiment.

“We will accept that rematch, but not in Mexico and that’s nothing against the Mexican people. We have been treated unbelievably well. We didn’t know what to expect when we came here. You’re coming into a hostile envirionment, but the journalists, the Mexican people and everyone we dealt with have been amazing.”

If any rematch was to play out – and it has to be noted Munguia could move up in weight – the man who masterminded the tactics that tamed the ‘Monster’ believes Hogan would register stoppage victory.

“We had the perfect plan going into this fight and we prepared perfectly,” coach Glenn Rushton explained.

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“Jaime was frustrated I could see it in his eyes. He was all out of answers he didn’t know what to do. Even when he did land on Dennis, Dennis came straight back at him.

“There were a couple of times [Hogan hurt Munguia], once when Jaime was going backwards and the referee was behind him, he stopped him and if that didn’t happen Dennis would have jumped all over him. There was another time he rocked him straight back.”

“Next time we’d knock him out. 100 percent. He was hurt in there. There was a couple of time he wobbled Jaime and, as I said, Jaime was all out of answers.”

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Jonny Stapleton

Irish-boxing.com contributor for 15 years and editor for the past decade. Have been covering boxing for over 16 years and writing about sports for a living for over 20 years. Former Assistant Sports editor for the Gazette News Paper Group and former Tallaght Voice Sports Editor. Have had work published in publications around the world when working as a freelance journalist. Also co-founder of Junior Sports Media and Leinster Rugby PRO of the Year winner. email: editoririshboxing@gmail.com

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