Tim Tszyu v Dennis Hogan: Irishman’s late show fails to mess with Tszyu’s head
Dennis Hogan’s late arrival for a promotional event in Newcastle failed to distract Tim Tszyu from his mission to punish the Irish fighter on Wednesday night.
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So how does a fighter go steal shine from Tim Tszyu?
Easy. First, you arrive late to an open workout created specifically for Australia’s newest boxing superstar. Not just slightly late either, but close to an hour.
Then, you apologise to absolutely no one.
“Oh, I’m glad it happened,” Irishman Denis Hogan grinned when, finally, and with entourage in tow, he sauntered into Sunday’s official fight week launch at Charlestown Square shopping complex.
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“I’ll take that as a little win for today.”
Despite being the undeniable B-side of his ‘Steel City Showdown’ with Tszyu on Wednesday night, Hogan has gone and scored big by making his rival do the fight night equivalent of having to enter the ring first.
Originally, the Queensland-based slugger was slated to train first in the boxing ring promoters had assembled smack bang in the middle of a Newcastle shopping centre.
Yet at 12 noon, his allotted time, the challenger was nowhere to be seen.
Nor did anyone know where the bloody hell he was.
With promoters able to confirm only that Hogan’s Virgin Australia flight out of Brisbane had arrived on time, 11.10am, at Newcastle airport.
So the crowd chatted, a DJ spun discs and the new face of Aussie boxing waited, then waited some more.
But as for Hogan’s absence being deliberate?
Team Tszyu had no idea.
“Whether it’s a ploy to upset us, we aren’t sure,” the fighter’s manager Glen Jennings said when they arrived shortly after noon. “But if he doesn’t turn up, we don’t care. We’ll go have lunch and he can do what he likes.”
Yet after waiting for about 15 minutes, Tszyu eventually went and jumped into the ring himself as, with that DJ still spinning tunes by the apron, he gave fans a short, sharp workout.
Afterwards, the undefeated Aussie then hung around and signed autographs for scores of fans before Hogan finally showed, with the fighter explaining he had been caught in COVID screening at Newcastle airport.
But apologise?
No chance.
Asked if the snubbing was deliberate, Hogan laughed: “No, no, no.
“Although I was very relaxed the whole time at the airport.
“So I’ll take that as a little win for today.
“And I know Tim will try and do that to me (make him wait) during the ring walk on Wednesday night.”
Really, you think Tszyu will delay his entrance just to piss you off?
“Yeah, of course he will,” Hogan continued, still smiling. “And I’m gunna be standing in there, holding up the ropes waiting for him.”
Elsewhere, Hogan admitted being “mystified” to his position as betting underdog against Tszyu, given his vast international resume.
“The WBC rankings have me ahead of him,” Hogan fired. “And I would rather that ranking ahead of any bookie.
“So I don’t care what anyone is saying, or what words Timmy is reading off the teleprompter, I just can’t wait to get in and do what I do.
“For me, this is fulfilling my destiny.”
While Tszyu insisted he wasn’t bothered by Hogan appearing last before the crowd, his crowd – “I didn’t even notice” – the 26-year-old insisted he wouldn’t be so easygoing Wednesday night.
“For me, he doesn’t pose any danger,” the fighter said of Hogan. “He’s like a fly, always buzzing around. And once in a while you have to swat that fly. That’s the game.
“He will come out with plenty of punches, plenty of activity, he will be moving around, dancing around.
“So I’ll wait for him to stop — then punch his head in.”
At which point, in the background, Hogan finally started climbing those stairs into the ring.
But as for Tszyu hanging around to watch?
“Nah,” he grinned. “I’ve got a few other things to do.”
‘TSZYUCASTLE’ READY TO ROCK WITH KOSTYA'S BOY
By Jamie Pandaram
Having first glanced at a small skinny kid punching his father’s hands 20 years ago, Newcastle king Andrew Johns has hailed Tim Tszyu as having the ability to surpass Kostya’s feats.
Johns was a big fan of Kostya Tszyu, and attended two of his six fights in Newcastle – where Tim fights professionally for the first time on Wednesday against Dennis Hogan.
Following a Knights game in 2002, after their premiership win the year before, Johns and a few teammates had dinner with Kostya and a seven-year-old Tim.
“I remember Kostya had his hands out and Tim was punching them, I thought ‘look at this young bloke go’,” Johns told News Corp.
“And then you blink 20 times and now he’s on the world stage.
“He’s the next generation, 25 years after Kostya was doing his thing there.
“Like the guys who were talking about Kostya when he was fighting there, probably their kids are going to talk about it now, which is pretty cool.
“I love Newcastle, so for boxing to get a kick along there is sensational.”
Tszyu has intentionally taken the biggest fight of his career thus far to the city his father virtually made a second home, and his marketing team has even come up with the phrase “Tszyucastle” to promote this bout against Hogan.
“I was actually a massive Knights fan growing up,” Tszyu said.
“Who wouldn’t have been when you’re sitting across the table from one of the all-time greats in Joey Johns? I remember it clearly, too, being so starstruck as a kid, but looking back I imagine they were probably feeling the same with Dad.”
Kostya final in Newcastle was in 1998 against American Calvin Grove, who he knocked out in the first round.
“I went to a couple of Kostya’s fights in the mid-90s, he was just ferocious, absolutely ferocious,” Johns said.
“I just remember him knocking people out.
“And I remember his hair. No one had hair like that, the ponytail thing he had going on at the back, and now it’s quite popular.”
As far as sporting icons go in Newcastle, none will ever be as popular as Johns and his brother Matt. But Kostya comes close and Tim is hoping to reach into that Novocastrian nostalgia on Wednesday night as he seeks to become mandatory challenger for the WBO super-welterweight title.
“Matty and Joey have always been great supporters of mine, as they were with Dad back in the day,” Tszyu said.
“They were telling me a couple of classic stories about how fun and wild some of his Newcastle fights were, too. Matty said their old man got too close to one of Dad’s knockouts once and had to go home and get changed before heading out after the fight because his shirt was covered in blood.
“Who knows? Maybe I can repeat that bit of history with them sitting ringside on Wednesday night.”
Andrew Johns, who will be ringside at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre, would be wise to bring a spare shirt.
The rugby league Immortal and his brother were marvelled by Tim’s steely determination when they caught up with the undefeated fighter recently.
“I don’t want to keep comparing Tim to his dad, because he is on his own journey,” Johns said. “But I think he can make his own path and who knows, he may go past where his father went.
“He’s on his own journey, I could see when I was talking to him how driven he is, and he’s got that cold, icy stare. Matthew and I were talking about that after he left, I said ‘What about that, scary’.
“People were talking about Tim probably four or five years ago, and then when he knocked Jeff Horn out everyone started to take notice.
“I’ve followed it because of meeting his dad and following him from a young age. The world is his oyster at the moment.
“He looks really strong.”
Tszyu (17-0, 13KO) believes he is ready to be world champion.
Hogan, 36, has attempted that feat three times and fallen short, his only losses in a stellar career of 28-3-1 (7KO).
The winner of this bout is set to become the No. 1 challenger for WBO champion Brian Castano.
However, Castano is in negotiations for a super-welterweight unification showdown with Jermell Charlo, who holds the other three major belts in the division; the WBC, WBA and IBF.
If that unification fight can be made next, the winner of Tszyu-Hogan would be forced to wait months, possibly even until 2022, for a world title shot.
But Tszyu won’t be sitting on his heels should he be victorious in Newcastle, targeting fellow title contenders including England’s former world champion Liam Smith (29-2-1, 16KO) and Russia’s Magomed Kurbanov (21-0, 13KO).
Smith and Kurbanov fight each other in May for the WBO’s “International” title, and Tszyu could potentially face the winner to force a world title showdown thereafter.
“I’ve got top-10 options that I‘m going for, the world title opportunities, the Liam Smiths, the (Magomed) Kurbanovs, the Danny Garcias, they’re the boys I want,” Tszyu said.
“They’re the big boys in the division that I want to play with.”
But the timings of the fights, back-and-forth rumblings with overseas promoters and COVID enforced travel restrictions will make it difficult.
That is why local loudmouth Michael Zerafa, who has been viciously baiting Tszyu and accusing him of ducking a fight, has emerged as a serious contender for the next bout.
Tszyu this week said Zerafa will be his last resort, however the simmering tension makes it an easy-to-sell fight if a world title can’t be secured.
Tszyu remains undeterred from his grand ambition; to become a world champion at super-welterweight, middleweight, and eventually super-middleweight.
“I’m improving as a fighter, I get better each time and I’ve been proving that to everyone,” Tszyu said.
“I’m targeting the big boys in the division. I’m going to get the opportunity to fight one of those guys soon, so I’ve got to be 100 per cent ready.”
Originally published as Tim Tszyu v Dennis Hogan: Irishman’s late show fails to mess with Tszyu’s head
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