Dennis Hogan confident as he sizes up Nonaka ahead of world title eliminator

Dennis Hogan [25(7)-1(0)-1] came face to face with his opponent today for the first time ahead of his world title eliminator this weekend.

The Australia-based Kildare boxer faces Japanese champion Yuki Nonaka [31(10)-8(1)-3] in a WBO light middleweight eliminator on Saturday at the Brisbane Convention Centre.

Ranked 6th and 7th with the organisation respectively, the winner of the Hogan v Nonaka bout will be thrust to near the top of the rankings. With Miguel Cotto set to vacate following his December swansong bout, assuming he wins, the winner of this weekend’s bout looks likely to face the winner of the rematch between Liam Smith and Liam Williams for the soon-to-be-vacant belt..

The 32 year old Irishman will be making the second defence of his WBO Oriental rankings belt, while 39 year old veteran Nonaka is unbeaten since 2009 coming into the bout.

Today Hogan got to size up the rangey southpaw at a face-to-face above the city.

Kept apart be former World title challenger Alex Leapai, it was a cordial affair

Afterwards Hogan spoke to Queensland News Nine and was in confident form.

“I’ve been training very hard,” he said. “This has been a dream of mine for a long time and we’re only one fight off now.”

“I’ve finished all the hard work, I’ve put in a serious amount of hard work for this and I wont be letting it slip, I’ll be getting the win and I’ll be in a good position for the world title.”

.@tmitch_86 caught up with the man hoping to follow in Jeff Horn’s shoes, Dennis Hogan. #9News pic.twitter.com/1wRs0pwsgf

— Nine News Queensland (@9NewsQueensland) October 10, 2017