Australian boxing legends Jeff Fenech and Barry Michael were left in disbelief as Sam Eggington’s decision to do very little homework on Dennis Hogan backfired in spectacular fashion.
It was fourth time lucky for Hogan as he beat Eggington via majority decision (114-114, 116-112 x 2) to win the IBO super welterweight world title in front of a rowdy Newcastle Entertainment Centre.
Eggington, renowned for his entertaining fights that get bums off seats, simply couldn’t find a rhythm against the extremely awkward Hogan across the 12 rounds of action.
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Yet he perhaps could have had more success had he strayed from his normal approach in the lead-up to fights, as the Birmingham native is famous for barely watching any tape of his opponents.
It’s an approach that left Fenech and Michael baffled.
“I can’t believe his opponent (Eggington) never watched him,” Fenech said on the Main Event broadcast.
“Because when you’re fighting someone like him (Hogan), you need to watch him. You need to know what you’re up against. Bad move by them.”
Michael added: “That’s hard to believe. What, are you that disinterested you don’t want to see who you’re getting in against? It’s crazy.”
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Fenech believed Eggington was made to look “quite ordinary” with his movement simply not on par with Hogan’s.
Yet Michael noted Eggington was “made to look ordinary by the style”.
“As we say, styles makes fights,” Michael said.
“And Dennis Hogan had the style to win tonight and he did it beautifully.”
Despite Eggington’s reluctance to focus too much on Hogan’s fighting style, the Irishman knew all too well what his rival was going to bring to the table.
And the 37-year-old had a previous fight against a similar opponent to fall back on, even if it meant he could never quite get going like he wanted to.
“I like to break it up a bit and have people guessing, and I think I did that for the most part,” Hogan said in the post-fight press conference.
“Sam just wanted to get in but he didn’t have the movement that I have, I found that from the start.
“But as much as I wanted to go first and they were good instructions, I really had to marry that in. Wade Ryan was quite similar where they want you to come in and they even let you get a few in, but when they get you on the inside, they’ll get you.
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“I had to be very careful of that. I had to just keep breaking it and keep getting little wins here and there, wherever I could get them. Even on the inside I was getting some good wins.”
The victory now means Hogan has the world title belt he had longed for, even if he felt he was a world champion after his robbery loss against Jaime Munguia.
It’s now opened up even more doors for the Irishman as revealed his next steps amid his Indian summer.
“Look, it will either close a chapter or open up a new one,” Hogan said.
“(I’ll) Have a defence back in Ireland, we’ll chat about a defence against someone from Ireland.
“Then after that, you’re either all in or you’re nothing and after that you just go after more belts.
“Keep going till I lose, really.”
