A fight which could be seen as lost in the shuffle amidst the hype around Chris Eubank Jr. vs Conor Benn is Birmingham's Sam Eggington travelling to Australia to make the first defence of his IBO super welterweight title against Dennis Hogan.
Eggington has been on a solid run of form since his loss to Ted Cheeseman in 2020, as he has strung four wins together since then and picked up the IBO title in the process. A victory over Ashley Theophane got the ball rolling for this hot run of form, then a victory over the veteran Carlos Molina followed. Eggington was then involved in a fight of the year contender as he edged out Bilel Jkitou by split decision. The shot at the IBO strap came next as Eggington and the undefeated Przemyslaw Zysk contested the vacant belt. Eggington produced a mature performance to pick up the IBO belt by a wide points decision.
Hogan is an Irishman who fights out of Australia and has been in with some tough operators and has fought for world titles on two occasions. His first attempt at world title glory came against WBO champion, Jaime Munguia. Hogan was the underdog, but put on a tremendous performance but would be on the wrong end of a unanimous decision to the shock of many. Hogan bounced back straight back into world title action at middleweight to challenge WBC champion, Jermall Charlo. Charlo would stop Hogan in six. Hogan would be stopped in his next bout too, as highly rated Australian prospect, Tim Tszyu, would stop him in five. Hogan bounced back with a win over a six-round shutout decision over Tommy Browne, before taking a unanimous decision victory over Wade Ryan over 12 rounds.
Eggington now travels into enemy territory to defend his belt, as Hogan will look to continue the rebuild of his career. Eggington will look to continue his good run of momentum and try and produce a statement victory over Hogan.