‘That belt comes with an asterisk ‘ – Team Hogan claim Patrick Teixeira can’t claim to be WBO champ until he beats the ‘Hurricane’

Patrick Teixeira’s status as a world champion is tainted by the fact he didn’t beat to the true champion to win the strap, argues DDP Sports.

The Brazilian claimed the interim world title when he defeated Carlos Adames in November and has been upgraded to champion since Jaime Munguia vacated to move up to middleweight.

DDP Sports Paul Keegan argues the WBO should have never have been Munguia’s to vacate after his fight with Dennis Hogan in April of last year.

As a result the promoter claims question marks remain with regard to the Golden Boy’s status as a world champion.

“I think Teixeira is very very lucky to be signed by Goldenboy. They obviously wanted to keep the title in house after Munguia vacated,” Keegan told Irish-boxing.com.

“Teixeira knows Dennis beat Munguia , he was there that night watching, so surely in his head he knows he should not be the champion.”

Hogan moved up post his controversial defeat to the Mexican in Tijuana, not because he was struggling to make 154lbs, but because he was afforded the chance to challenge for the WBC world title.

His attempt to dethrone Jermall Charlo wasn’t successful and Hogan’s will now move back down in a bid to fulfill his world title dream.

An immediate shot at Teixeira doesn’t look likely due to the fact the Kildare native hasn’t a world ranking with the WBO at 154lbs, but there are other avenues to explore.

“Dennis isn’t ranked with the WBO currently, but is with the WBC. The WBO seemed very quick to get him out of there after they scored the Munguia fight a draw.

“Dennis jumped up to middleweight to fight for the WBC title so that’s the reasoning we believe.”

One Irish fighter who could get a shot at the light middleweight champion of the world is Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan.

The Cork fighter has a working relationship with Golden Boy and has been linked to the champ in recent weeks.

Whether that fight happens next remains to be seen, but ‘Spike’ is in contention.

If the Pascal Collins trained 35-year-old does managed to challenge and defeat Teixeira, Keegan hopes he would defend the strap against Hogan in the first all Irish world title fight ever.

“Spike is with Goldenboy so is Teixeira, so going on previous meetings with them they will want that fight to keep the belt in house. But as I said that belt comes with an asterisk in my opinion. You truly can’t be the WBO world champ until you fight and beat Hogan.

“If Spike was to win then we would hope he has the same vision as Dennis did. We wanted to make Dennis vs Spike in the first all Irish world title and put it on in Ireland.

“We went public with that vision before the Munguia fight. We said our first defence would be in Dublin with Spike being the opponent. I don’t know Spikes plan but if he wanted to repay the favour then Dennis would do it. In saying that we won’t wait around.”