Hogan vs Tszyu world title eliminator ‘very close’ to being officially confirmed

Dennis Hogan [28(7)-3(1)-1] is a few dot’s over the odd ‘I’ and a few crosses through some ‘T’s’ away from a stadium fight with Tim Tszyu [17(3)-0].

Irish-boxing.com has reported talks between the two camps have been heating up over the last six weeks – and it seems the fight is about to come to fruition.

Tszyu’s Team have echoed the posititivity coming from DDP Sports, Hogan’s promoters, with regard to the fight.

Manger Glenn Jennings says the fight is close to being officially confirmed.

“Nothing has been signed yet, but it’s very close to being made official,” he revealed.

Australian based, Hogan had a world title eliminator set up for December and looked set to fight Julian Williams for the right to fight for third world strap on St Stephen’s Day. However, the American caught Covid and the clash was said to be postponed.

A January Williams dalliance was expected, until news emerged Team Hogan were exploring other options.

There were those happy to hear the Kildare fighter was no longer coming in as a PBC opponent, but some worried whether passage to a world title shot maybe closed.

That’s certainly not the case if ‘Australia’s biggest draw’s’ management is to be believed. Jennings claims the winner, of what could be labelled an Australian super fight, would fight for a world title next, effectively stating the clash is an eliminator.

“The winner moves into a world title shot,” he said.

“It’s a fight we were keen on last year, but Dennis had a fight with Julian Williams lined up, so it didn’t happen. We’re obviously not too keen on traveling around the world too much in the current climate, so we’re more than happy to revisit the fight with Hogan and take on all the local fighters.”

Hogan goes into the fight on the back of two world title bouts, a extremely controversial defeat to Jaime Munguia and a reverse up at middleweight against Jermall Charlo. The 35-year-old Wayne McCullough trained fighter hasn’t fought since late 2019 and in that time son of fight legend Kostya Tszyu has managed to capture the imagination of the Australian public, whilst earning rankings with each of the four governing bodies, including a #2 with the WBO.