Admirable Hogan effort not enough to dethrone Culcay
BRISBANE-based Irishman Dennis Hogan was the latest example of a close fight in Germany not being judged as such.
Hogan, 30, boxed with intelligence, counterpunched effectively and for the best part of eight rounds, seemed to giving defending interim WBA light middleweight titleholder Jack Culcay a harder fight than he had anticipated.
And while the winner was perhaps beyond doubt after twelve competitive rounds, a laughable 119-109 scorecard was rendered by Montreal-based Italian judge Pasquale Procopio.
It was a close fight that lived up to its title billing, but unfortunately, inept judging reared its head yet again. By no means was it a robbery – but according to two judges – the fight was over before they reached double digits.
Culcay, also 30, used all of his experience to outwork Hogan (now 22-1-1, 7 KOs) and appeared to hurt the previously undefeated challenger twice in the closing stages of the fight, but not enough to halt proceedings.
Although Hogan was far from disgraced, his apparent lack of pure punching power hurt him in this fight as he was unable to halt the momentum of a fast-finishing Culcay (21-1, 10 KOs), who defended his title for the first time.
“I just want to thank Jack Culcay for a excellent fight,” said Hogan via his Facebook page. “I know exactly where I went wrong and gave him the opportunity to get off his flurry of punches every round that stole the fight,”
“You can’t get away with anything at this level so it’s time to do what it takes to perfect every part of my game,”
“I know I belong at this level and with some honest hard work I will get back up there and achieve my dream,”
Hogan’s manager, Adam Wilcock, was in a reflective mood post-fight as he offered his thoughts on his third unsuccessful attempt at WBA world title honours as a promoter/manager.
Wilcock had previously guided Frank LoPorto and Jarrod Fletcher to respective shots at the WBA light middleweight and middleweight straps, only to fall to immensely talented duo Austin Trout and Daniel Jacobs.
“Another hard and long flight home,” said Wilcock in a statement released on Facebook. “That’s zero from three in WBA world title fights for Fightcard boxers,”
“We are getting closer with every fight and in many ways Saturday was so upsetting because it really was close,”
“Despite the many knockers and those happy to revel in others failure, in which unfortunately we have more than a few in Australia, I refuse to give up.”
“I’ll keep working, keep trying, keep investing, keep spending, keep my commitments and ensure there’s not a waking moment that I’m not chasing every possible opportunity for our boxers,”
Photo: Team Sauerland
