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Official conformation! Dennis Hogan to fight Son of a Legend and ‘Australia’s biggest draw’ Tim Tszyu in massive March showdown

It’s official Dennis Hogan [28(7)-3(1)-1] will fight the son of a legend and one of the rising stars in Australian sport Tim Tszyu [17(3)-0] on March 31.

Irish-boxing.com had reported talks between the two camps have been heating up over the last six weeks – and the fight officially came to frution last night.

The official social media pages for both confirmed a deal has been done for March 31 in Australia, with further details to be announced.

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 previously.

“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.

Considering his father is none other than fight legend Kostya Tszyu the 26-year-old was always going to peak interest. Real deal status was afforded to him when he inflicted one sided defeat on former welterweight world champion and former Hogan stablemate, Jeff Horn. Indeed he seems he may have replaced Horn as Australia’s boxing darling.

The Aussie was hoping to challenge WBO light middleweight champion Patrick Teixeira for his strap, but the Brazilian is set to make his mandatory defense against Brian Castano on Feb. 13, as result it’s Tszyu versus Hogan next.

Jonny Stapleton

Irish-boxing.com contributor for 15 years and editor for the past decade. Have been covering boxing for over 16 years and writing about sports for a living for over 20 years. Former Assistant Sports editor for the Gazette News Paper Group and former Tallaght Voice Sports Editor. Have had work published in publications around the world when working as a freelance journalist. Also co-founder of Junior Sports Media and Leinster Rugby PRO of the Year winner. email: editoririshboxing@gmail.com

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