Jimmy Kelly warns Dennis Hogan that his past will come back to haunt him

Dennis Hogan will pay for his past indiscretions on Saturday morning claims Jimmy Kelly.

Kelly meets the Kildare fighter in Brisbane in a world #3 versus #2 clash with the winner expected to face the winner of next month’s WBO light middleweight world title fight between champion Sadam Ali and mandatory Liam Smith.

The 25-year-old Manchester native, who has been in Australia for the last three weeks, is extremely confident of victory and is deriving extra confidence form the fact the former light heavyweight wasn’t always the cleanest of livers.

The now extremely dedicated, fit, and driven Hogan has previously admitted he was once closer to becoming a world-class drinking rather than a world-class fight talent – and his pending opponent has suggested that will play a massive part when the pair trade leather on the DDP Promotions Card at the Brisbane Convention Centre, live on epicentre.tv.

“I’ve always lived a clean life and never taken shortcuts,” said Kelly, who has Carlow and Kilkenny heritage, to the Courier Mail.

“Hogan is a lot older than me and he’s knocked himself around in earlier times. I’m young and fresh and coming into my peak. It’s my time now. I’m going to put on a master class and give him a boxing lesson.”

The statements are no doubt a response ton 33-year-old Hogan’s own questioning of Kelly’s lifestyle, with the Manchester fighter recently posting pictures of himself eating McDonald’s to social media.

The non-clean line was also delivered by Kelly’s coach Lee Beard, who has predicted Kelly will win within six.

“We all know the things Dennis has got up to in his past,” Beard said.

“I give him credit for coming back but it’s taken its toll on Hogan. If you abuse your body the way that he has there is no way at his age he can be in the same sort of condition as my lad who has never been out of the gym since he was a little kid.”

Kelly added some further spice to the growing bad blood between the two camps by insisting that Horn, a stablemate of Hogan under Glenn Rushton, was given a gift decision over Manny Pacquiao in their welterweight world title fight at Suncorp Stadium last July.

“No disrespect, it’s just me being 100 per cent honest,” Kelly said.

“But Jeff Horn didn’t deserve the decision. I’m just hoping everything’s fair against Hogan.”