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Team Hogan hoping to force World Title shot as WBO chase stalls


Team Munguia may want nothing to do with Dennis Hogan – but the people behind the Kildare fighter are not going to rest until the secure their man his deserved shot.

Having done everything that was asked of him over the last 12 months and showing extraordinary patience, Hogan’s promoters feel the #1-ranked fighter is deserving of official mandatory status at the very least.

Indeed DDP Sports believe that mandatory status is necessary if they are to get a shot at young reigning champion Jamie Munguia who defends his belt for a second time on Saturday night.

Hogan [27(7)-1(0)-1] had offered to provide opposition for the WBO light middleweight champion on the Gennady Golovkin v Canelo Alvarez undercard but understood when the Golden Boy fighter elected to face #4 Brandon Cook on the Las Vegas bill – which also features a WBA middleweight final eliminator for Cork’s Spike O’Sullivan versus David Lemieux.

Their disappointment was tempered by the belief they would be granted mandatory status by the WBO and thus be next in line.

However, it seems the WBO have asked Hogan, who beat WBO top 10 opponents Yuki Nonaka and Jimmy Kelly in his last two fights, to win another fight and a final eliminator for the Irish light middle may be in the offing.

After beating Nonaka, Hogan had hoped to face Liam Smith in a vacant title fight. This was on the presumption that the retiring champion Miguel Cotto would defeat Sadam Ali – which did not happen.

Ali was then due to defend versus then-mandatory Smith but the Englishman withdrew due to an allergic reaction. Munguia would step in and destroyed Ali and subsequently defended versus Smith, winning a tough points decision.

“The situation is really simple,” DPP boss Paul Keegan told Irish-Boxing.com.

“Dennis is #1 but Munguia’s fight on Saturday is a voluntary and he choose #4 Brandon Cook.”

“Our biggest frustration is: you do everything right, fight the guys in and around you and still you are told go again,” he added before stressing he thinks Golden Boy have a fear of Hogan.

“I honestly believe Team Munguia want nothing to do with Dennis. I don’t believe for one second he [Munguia] himself is afraid of Dennis, I think his team are. Dennis is just way too risky for their liking.”

Keegan believes if Hogan had the strength of Golden Boy or the likes behind him he would have been mandated already, but remains defiant that the new company does right by their fighters and has promised to hassle the WBO until they ensure ‘The Huricane’ a tilt.

“I believe because DDP is so new that maybe the sanctioning bodies think ‘oh these guys will be okay if we push them back a bit’, but we won’t go away unfortunately for them.”

“Dennis Hogan deserves his shot more than any other super welterweight in the division and won’t fail, I guarantee that. He is obsessed with becoming a world champion.

“Nothing has ever been handed to us like other teams and fighters and we have had to scrap and fight for any bit of recognition we get.”

“I think the worst thing for all the big, big promotional companies is an Irish guy, who lives in Brisbane, who is promoted by a company only a year old is, sitting in the number one spot and we won’t be going away.”

Team Hogan have revealed they would take a final eliminator if they had to but the promotional outfit, who turned down a Kell Brook pay day believing a world title shot was just around the corner, are adamant they have options.

“Right now he is ranked number one with the WBO and number three with the IBF so we have two options.”

The current IBF champion is Jarrett Hurd who is also the WBA champ. The American, like Munguia, is noted for being a ‘giant’ at 154lbs.

The IBF mandatory will be determined by a final eliminator between Julian Williams and Takeshi Inoue which is tentatively set for November 10th but it remains to be confirmed.

The pair are #2 and #4 with the WBO respectively, with Cook at #3 and facing a huge task versus Munguia. Further down with the WBO are #5 Kell Brook and #7 Amir Khan who look unlikely to go for the belt and #6 Erislandy Lara who is targeting the WBA – all of which makes the refusal to deem Hogan mandatory quite curious.

Kildare boxing is proudly supported by Liffey Crane Hire

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