Dennis Hogan Ready to Take on Jermall Charlo!
In the fight game, regardless of how unfair it may seem, the majority of boxers will never get a title shot. Receiving the opportunity to achieve world champion recognition is a near universal dream.
This is why Irish pugilist Dennis “Hurricane” Hogan (28-2-1, 7 KO’s) is doubly lucky.
LUCK OF THE IRISH
Not only did he get one title shot, he has rapidly approaching a second title attempt against WBC world middleweight champion Jermall “Hit Man” Charlo (29-0, 21 KO’s) on December 7.
Even more amazingly, this additional crack at the promised land is coming directly off of a loss and in a division he hasn’t fought at in over five years!
To his credit though, most any and all who saw Hogan v WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia (34-0, 27 KO’s) felt that Hogan won. Taking the challenge in Munguia’s home territory of Mexico, it appeared he suffered a hometown decision.
Thankfully for him, Hogan has taken it all in stride and actually appreciates his journey as he told Fight Hub TV.
“I set out with a goal to become world champion and that vision to me is very, very clear. Along the way the right people came into my life to fulfill that mission.
“Now everybody is here and I’m ready to go. I’m boxing better than I’ve ever boxed before. I’m twice in the place I was before the Mexico fight.”
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME
In very hakuna-matata fashion, the Hurricane has accepted the loss as a valuable lesson to prepare him for the Charlo showdown. The fighting Irishman also realizes that he is the B-side in this overall equation.
Again, this is a notion that rather than deny, Hogan has embraced. Ideally, the Hurricane believes the imbalanced publicity will cause the Hit Man to become lackadaisical once on the canvas.
“Yea, look the power just naturally comes when you’re not trying to dial it down and cut your calories. Your body will feel it and your muscles will fill up to where they need to be.
“On top of that, the perfect strength regime that we have it all works in beautifully and I can feel the power in my punches.
“I do feel that he is taking me cheaply, you know just that movement. It’s okay to look at something and say, ‘okay I got that,’ but it’s a different feel when you get in there.”
In his estimation, losing sight of the ball in this situation would be catastrophic for Charlo. According to the Hurricane, his last several fights have yielded tremendous training camps, with this one being no different.
As a result, Hogan believes that not only is he performing better, he is hitting harder.
“In terms of mentality, obviously it was disappointing what happened in Mexico but it’s very, very obvious to me now that that was meant to be.
“That set me up for this. Which this is by far a bigger goal for me, is to capture the WBC world championship. So it all makes sense now, and it speaks volumes of my performance in Mexico to get his fight straight away.
“Some guys can spend three to four years and may never get a world title fight again. But here we are now ready to go and get that strap.”
YOURS AGAINST MINE
Beyond any would-be overlooking advantages, Hogan believes once they arrive at the Brooklyn Barclays Center that the crowd will be neutral. The Hurricane is very self-assured that his Irish fan base will come out in force to support their countryman.
If so, Hogan believes that this supportive audience will play a sizable role in propelling him to victory.
“This will probably be like a home support for me, I truly believe it will be. You know it’s in a neutral ground really and all of that.
“When I was down in Mexico I was fearless anyway but everything was against us and now we’re going in and it seems like to me it’ll be 50-50 or 60-40 in how I feel about it.
“So we’ll just get down there and do the job, the support will be unbelievable.”
By: Bakari Simpson
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