Matchroom fighter lined up for Dennis Hogan’s first defence
Dennis Hogan [31(7)-4(2)-1] could make the first defence of his IBO light middleweight world title against James Metcalf [24(15)-2(1)].
Team Hogan are in talks with Matchroom with regard to the Irish versus English fight and would love for it to happen in Ireland.
Hogan’s manager Steve Scanlan sees it as an ideal match-up for any Katie Taylor homecoming undercard and told Irish-boxing.com he has already opened up talks with Matchroom about making the fight.
“We are currently talking with Matchroom to face James Metcalf – a fight that we really really want. Dennis would love to defend in Ireland in front of his home crowd on such a big monumental occasion,” he says before revealing the Liverpool fighter would be step one toward a massive Jeff Horn fight in 2024.
“The ideal year would be for Dennis to defend his title against James on the Katie Taylor undercard and then get two more fights in before year end – potentially coax Jeff Horn out of retirement for a huge fight here in Australia?”
Metcalfe is option number one because he provides passage toward a first fight at home for the Australian based Hogan – but the Brit is not the only option according to Scanlan.
“If Matchroom don’t make the fight with Metcalf then we have plenty of options.”
One of the options for a May defence isn’t Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan. The Cork fighter was said to be in the frame and the Kildare versus Cork clash was one Irish fight fans were invested, but Scanlan claims the Celtic Warriors Gym fighter isn’t eligible at this time. Irish-boxing.com understands Spike had hoped to change that by securing a win in Boston in March but an ankle injury prevented him from fighting.
“Spike isn’t ranked as of yet, so as much as we would love that fight we can’t defend against him.”
Conor McGregor was another potential opponent mentioned by Scanlan recently, commenting on a possible fight with the UFV star he said: ” McGregor is focusing on UFC return but I’m still hopeful one day we can make that happen.”
