How Brisbane fight fans make hero Hogan feel right at home

Dennis Hogan will soon vie for the world middleweight title in New York, but he says it will feel like he is fighting on home turf.

``Hogan's heroes’’ are on the march. World boxing title challenger Dennis Hogan flanked by some of his Brisbane team: Mark Riockley, Zach Bacigalupo, Chris Muckert, and Murray Thornton. Picture: Liam Kidston.

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Dennis Hogan, who could be the middleweight boxing champion of the world on Sunday afternoon, fell in love with Brisbane more than a decade ago; first with the sunshine, then with the people and finally with his partner Brideen White, who is now pregnant with their second child.

A small army of Brisbane fight fans have fallen in love with the fighting Irishman, too, and he says their love and support will give him the final thrust as he blasts off against WBC champion Jermall Charlo in their world title fight in New York on Sunday afternoon (Brisbane time).

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World boxing title challenger Dennis Hogan with his pregnant wife Brideen and daughter Aria at the Brisbane airport. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

It will be Hogan’s third shot at a world championship and it comes eight months after his last bout, a desperately close 12-round majority decision loss against the unbeaten Mexican Jaime Munguia for the WBO 70kg title.

For this middleweight fight Hogan will be 2.3kg heavier, considerably wiser and he says strengthened by all the friends he has made since he moved from Ireland to Queensland.

``This fight might be in New York,’’ Hogan said, ``but I will have so much support it will be like my hometown; people coming over from Brisbane, friends and family coming over from Ireland and so many Irish-Americans coming out to cheer me on.

``Hogan's heroes’’ are on the march. World boxing title challenger Dennis Hogan flanked by some of his Brisbane team: Mark Riockley, Zach Bacigalupo, Chris Muckert, and Murray Thornton. Picture: Liam Kidston.

`` I’m grateful for every message of good wishes that I get.’’

Hogan faces a tall order in Charlo, an unbeaten Texan who has 29 wins in 29 fights and says Hogan will be his 22nd knockout victim.

At 183cm Charlo has a 10cm height advantage and 13cm in reach but Hogan says he has the team around him to cause a huge upset.

Last week, trainer Glenn Rushton, who guided Jeff Horn to victory over Manny Pacquiao two years ago, joined Hogan at his Miami training camp where Hogan was already training with assistant coach Zach Bacigalupo, a former Queensland boxing champion and former Cowboys and Eels NRL player Chris Muckert, his strength and conditioning guru.

Hogan was an Irish amateur champion who first came to Brisbane in 2006 to visit a cousin for what turned out to be a long working holiday.

Jermall Charlo (right) on his way to stopping Julian Williams at the Galen Centre at the University of Southern California in 2016. (Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

He spent six weeks in a camper van driving up to Airlie Beach and worked in Brisbane as a carpenter, too, doing form work on the new Cloudland in Fortitude Valley.

Four years later he was back in Brisbane as part of an Irish amateur team for an invitation tournament and he saw Queensland as the land of opportunity. The Celtic Tiger, Ireland’s once roaring economy, had lost its teeth in a recession and the Australian sun was far more inviting than going home with empty pockets to a bleak Irish winter.