Irish boxer and WBO's fourth in the world Dennis 'Hurricane' Hogan will face the WBO Inter-Continental Champion and World number five Jimmy Kilrain Kelly in Brisbane, Australia on April 7th at the Convention Centre.
The fight marks a massive step forward for Hogan, who fought just once in 2017. At the time of agreeing that fight, Hogan was third in the world, but slipped to seventh due to an extended delay. The 32-year-old landed a comprehensive victory over Yuki Nonaka in October and now moves one step closer to a much-sought-after title shot.
Hogan spent years on the amateur circuit in Ireland, including fighting Kenneth Egan several times in the National Boxing Championships.
He then emigrated to Australia in 2011. The fight represents a fantastic opportunity for the Kildare man who said in a statement:
Kelly is coming to my city, my home and my supporters. Lets just say for your first fight outside of the UK, he will get a nice surprise from the Brisbane faithful. I am beating him for Irish pride and For Australian pride.
Prior to the announcement, the pair traded insults recently on Twitter.
I don’t know what you think is going on,I can’t wait to get my hands on Ye and the look on your face after the fight!You can stop your terrible “banter”because we want you for the eliminator and I want you anyway!That’s the truth but I don’t expect a normal response, so bore me..
— Dennis Hogan (@dennis_h_hogan) January 7, 2018
See Jim your boring and no intellect, oh and you can’t box either 😂
If I don’t fight you next it’s cause I’m fighting the Russian for pole position. You’ve earned nothing in these rankings and I do want you 💯 later— Dennis Hogan (@dennis_h_hogan) January 7, 2018
Kelly lost his world title to fellow-British boxer Liam Smith. Smith looks set to face current titleholder Sadam Ali in April which could see the winners of both bouts progress to a bout later this year.
Jimmy Kelly said the following about the fight:
I have to feed my family so I have to beat Hogan, it's that simple.
Meanwhile, Hogan's Manager Paul Keegan had this to say.
Dennis has always said get me the best fights possible I don't care who I fight, nobody will stop me becoming the world champion, as a team we wanted to give boxing fans a real war so Jimmy vs Dennis fits that bill. They don't like each other and have been going at it for months on social media. This will be one of the most interesting 12 weeks in the lead up to the fight and it will be even more interesting when they come face to face at the press conference in April.
The fight is set to contribute to a phenomenally exciting April for Irish boxing, with Carl Frampton set to fight in Belfast and Katie Taylor's homecoming moving towards confirmation.
