Dennis Hogan reveals that he was close to a World title fight during the Summer

One man who will be paying close attention to the action tomorrow in Texas is Dennis Hogan.

Liverpool’s Liam Smith defends his WBO title against Mexican superstar Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez at the AT&T Stadium, and Kildare man Hogan has his eye on the winner.

The Kilcullen fighter won the WBO Oriental title last weekend, outpointing Samuel Colomban in Brisbane and is expected to re-enter the organisations’ World rankings in the near future.

Hogan however revealed to Irish-Boxing.com that it could have been so much bigger, with the 31 year old having been lined up as an opponent for Smith during the Summer before the Scouser was handed the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to face Canelo in a stadium fight.

Hogan explained that “we’ve been in talks already before he [Smith] signed to fight Canelo.”

“I believe we were in the driving seat for the fight at the time.”

“You can’t blame smith for taking the Canelo fight though, as all fighters are looking to get the biggest fights they can at the time.”

In terms of fighting the winner, the lilywhite knows it may be unlikely and described how “Canelo would be a hard fight to make, but then Smith would be too after beating a superstar like Canelo.”

“I’d fancy getting a fight with Smith better”

Giving his thoughts on the clash, Hogan admits that “I do believe Canelo will overpower Smith, but I can’t just look past Smith easily.”

“He’s made good fighters look ordinary in his last few outings so who knows what he’s capable of.”