“Three strong offers” help Hogan get over Cotto defeat

Puerto Rico mourned last Saturday night as fight legend Miguel Cotto bowed out of boxing with defeat in New York.

However, the loss to Sadam Ali in the Madison Square Garden Arena also prompted Irish boxing related tears in Australia.

A victory for the future Hall of Famer would have seen the WBO light middleweight title left up for grabs and current #4 Dennis Hogan would have been in prime position to challenge for the title.

Liverpool’s Liam Smith is mandatory for the strap and now looks set to challenge Ali for a crown he once held but, if things had of gone the way of Cotto, Hogan [26(7)-1(0)-1] and Smith were likely to trade leather for the vacant strap.

So, as things stand, ‘The Hurricane’ will have to bide his time. The Dublin part of his promotional team, DDP Sports, admits that the result was initially hard to take, but boss Paul Keegan was in a positive frame of mood by the time he got speaking to Irish-Boxing.com later in the week.

Keegan revealed his change in mood was helped by the fact three strong offers, each interesting and exciting in their own right, have been made in the days following Ali’s win.

“The Cotto loss was a bit of a disappointment as we felt if he had won and retired we were right in the mix for a fight with Liam Smith, who won his eliminator vs Liam Williams,” explained Hogan.

“We had made contact with Liam’s team and advised that Dennis would be willing to travel to the UK for that fight no problem but then the result on Sunday changed that plan,” said Keegan before explaining how it’s not the end of the World.

“Admittedly, as a team we were a bit disappointed as we felt we were very close to a fight for the World title but it’s funny, as of yesterday we have three strong offers on the table, so things remain positive.” 

“We also meet with the WBO supervisor here in Australia last week and stated our case on why we should be very close. There is not many other lads fighting each other in the WBO top 10 and Dennis just beat the world number 7 – and very convincingly too – so he is in a strong position.”

Keegan believes the Kildare man’s World ranking is tempting the offers and went as far as to admit he feels promoters may see Hogan as the easiest route to securing a top 10 standing.

The promoter, who certainly doesn’t believe his man is a soft touch, suggests Team Hogan will survey the landscape before deciding what’s next. The Brisbane-based boxerman could sit it out, maintain his ranking without massive risk and wait for his shot.

However, Keegan claims the team are keen to have a fight and date agreed for the Glenn Rushton-trained fighter before Christmas, which suggests the three offers on the table must be interesting to say the least.

“Other promoters and fighters obviously want Dennis’s ranking and maybe they see him as the best option in the top five. We don’t pay heed to that because the new and improved is a different animal,” Keegan continued.

“The plan now is to sit down as a team and decide what’s the best way to go. We have options and are still close to a World title shot. In fact the great thing with Dennis is he doesn’t care who he fights and where so that gives him so many options.” 

“The next seven days will be very interesting but we want to agree on a fight and lock it in so everyone knows what’s next in early 2018.”

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