Dennis Hogan promises ‘home crowd’ explosive performance

Having being cheered on by a vocal Irish contingent during yesterday’s weigh in Dennis Hogan [28(7)-2-1] believes more than ever he will have more support that American Jermall Charlo [29(21-0] in Brooklyn tonight.

The WBC world middleweight world title challenger believes he will come across as the A side in terms of public backing and is promising a performance to match.

A somewhat rattled Charlo respond to Irish heckles after stepping off the scales on Friday and the Kildare native believes he will be more upset tonight when he suffers career defeat for the first time in his career and loses his world title.

“I’ve always said that when you have a great atmosphere in the arena, it’s like a third guy in the ring. It gets me motivated and it’s always been a big thing for me. I’m going to feel like I’m fighting in front of my home crowd Saturday night,” said the Australian based Irish fighter who trades leather in Brooklyn before predicting victory and an entertaining fight.

“We’re both professional athletes and we’re going to give the fans a great fight. One of us is going to walk away with the WBC belt and I truly believe it will be me. 

“You’re going to see something explosive Saturday night. It’s two fighters who truly believe they’re going to win. That makes for brilliant viewing and I’m excited to deliver that to the public.” 

It’s confident from an calm and assured challenger ahead of the Barclay’s Center hosted Showtime broadcast world title fight.

Two weight world champ Charlo has been equally assured although has been more forthcoming with his victory predictions.

The Texan has being predicting a knockout and a one-sided win every since the fight was officially confirmed.

It’s par for the course for Hogan and he predicts the PBC fighter will soon discover he won’t be able to make his bold predictions true.

“Every opponent that I’ve had thinks they’re going to knock me out. It’s not about how hard you throw a punch, it’s about how hard can you land a punch and that’s the difficulty people have with me.

“That’s one of my best attributes. When I land clean, they tend to realize I mean business and don’t want to come forward. I feel 20% more powerful and he’s going to feel my punches.”

Hogan’s coach, Glen Rushton has been heralded of late for the game plans he produced for Hogan and gym mate Jeff Horn’s bouts with Jaime Munguia and Manny Pacquioa respectively – and ‘The Hurricane’ suggests people may be blown away again tonight.

“My coach is brilliant at spotting weaknesses in opponents. Charlo doesn’t have many weaknesses but there are things that I can capitalize on with the right game plan. Even Muhammad Ali had these areas, so everybody has them and it’s about capitalizing on them.”