A KILDARE MAN IN LONDON: Hurricane Hogan set for Mexican world title fight

On Saturday night next, April 13, in Monterrey, Mexico, Dennis Hogan from Carnalway will fight champion Jaime Munguia for the WBO Junior Middleweight world boxing title.

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Hogan, 34, turned professional in 2011 after moving to Queensland in Australia. Regular readers of this column will be familiar with his name. Hogan has popped up more than once in this space as his ascent has gathered pace in recent years.

But the story of a Kildare athlete boxing for a world title in Mexico is unprecedented in the sporting history of this county. ‘Hurricane’ Hogan has made a home and built a large fan base in his adopted city of Brisbane, Australia.

The one-time carpenter is rated as an outsider for this Saturday’s fight, which is available to stream online on the website DAZN.

Breaking from his training camp in LA this week, Hogan spoke to the Leinster Leader about his final days of preparation and how family and Kildare remain at the forefront of his mind.

“We are into the last couple of days now,” he said. “And I’ve had some really intense training. I’ve gone up a level. It’s phenomenal. Again and again I’m executing my game plan for Saturday night. It’s all I know and all I work on. I’m supremely confident I will have my hand raised and be crowned world champion.”

Hogan explained that the well-wishes from Kildare have been numerous during the build up. And despite having lived away from Ireland for more than eight years, his connection with friends and family in Kildare remains potent.

“The economic situation at home was the main reason that I left Ireland,” he said. “In 2011, people were out of work. You’d hear all the struggles. There was all this negativity but it drove me on.

“When my career started taking off (in Australia) I could feel the whole of Kilcullen getting behind me. There’d be signs up on the Credit Union before big fights — ‘All the best, Dennis’.

“I remember saying back then I would be a world champion and that my first defence would be in Ireland and I’m ever so close to that now.”

Hogan cites his grandfather and Naas native Paddy Burke, a former coach in the St David’s Boxing Club, as one of the great influences on his career. And it’s no surprise that this week his grandfather is in his thoughts.

“One of the guys from the estate my grandad was from in Naas messaged me this week and said he (my grandad) would be the proudest man in the world.

“When I won the Irish championship as an amateur he was proud and when I was 2-0 as a professional boxer, he’d said starting out that I’d win it. I’d come home from Australia and anyone helping him out then knew my story because he’d be telling them.

“I know he will be there in spirit.”

Hogan’s mother has travelled out to Mexico for the fight, along with friends of the boxer from both Kildare and Australia. The Arena Monterrey has a capacity of 17,000 and its anticipated that the atmosphere will be febrile and weighted heavily in favour of the champion, Munguia.

The boxer is revered in his native country and the Hogan fight is something of a homecoming for the 22-year-old. The setting poses an enormous challenge. But Hogan, who has forged a reputation for his steely mental fortitude, is undaunted by the underdog tag and the prospect of an extremely intimidating atmosphere.

“I feel right and I feel this is what it is meant to be — to go to Mexico,” he said. “I’ve been trying to get all the one per cents in my corner. But winning the championship in Mexico, that is my next level as my growth as a person. And it is this belief that has got me to where I am today and can now bring me to an even bigger story.

“I’ve alway believed that life will throw you challenges regardless of what your situation is in life and I’ve always felt these challenges are things I can overcome.”

“One thing I still go back to is something I learned in Naas, during my first fight when I was eigh,t and it was always ingrained in me to really go for it and these are things you still go back to. I believe everything is exactly where it needs to be now at this time.”

Robert Mulhern is a London based journalist contracted to Sky News. To contact him, email [email protected]