THE BOXING MANAGEMENT and promotional company who have steered Kildare’s Dennis Hogan to the precipice of world honours have officially set up shop in Ireland, and intend to begin promoting professional cards on Hogan’s home soil from next spring.
DDP Sports, which consists of Dubliner Paul Keegan, Australian Danny Dimas and Hogan himself, have in their short existence become major players in the fight scene Down Under, putting on a series of significant events involving Kilcullen’s ‘Hurricane’ and other talent native to OZ and further afield.
As well as co-founder Hogan [28-2-1, 7KOs], who recently suffered a highly controversial light-middleweight world-title defeat to previously feared Mexican Jaime Munguia in Monterrey, DDP currently boast among their ranks another recent world-title challenger in female light-welterweight Deedee Hobbs [8-1, 5KOs] and world-ranked super-middle Rohan Murdock [24-1, 17KOs].
CEO Keegan recently relocated from Brisbane to Dublin on a full-time basis and has set up a DDP office on his native turf.
Under his stewardship in the capital, DDP Ireland intend to host quarterly professional boxing shows in Ireland, potentially from as early as next February.
Many aspiring promotional outfits have tried and failed to crack the Irish market, and Dublin in particular, in recent years: most recently, Assassin Boxing — who played a pivotal role in putting Irish boxing back on terrestrial TV through TG4 — were banished from the scene by the Boxing Union of Ireland (BUI) due to the alleged non-payment of at least one boxer.
Only Leonard Gunning’s Boxing Ireland Promotions — who in effect birthed the burgeoning Irish domestic scene that currently exists — remain in the Republic. The London-based Sligo native’s thriving outfit have already added exciting teenage prospect Katelynn Phelan — formerly an Assassin fighter — to their stable, and are bound to acquire more of the free agents whose Assassin contracts have been nullified.
DDP could yet enter that same market and build an Irish stable of their own, but speaking to Irish-boxing.com, Keegan said his company are “open to working with all promoters, managers and fighters”, adding: “We are open to having mutually beneficial relationships with those that work in the sport here.”
Keegan has previously expressed an interest in staging an ‘Emerald Exiles’ card in Dublin, which would potentially feature several foreign-based Irish fighters who are yet to receive the opportunity to fight professionally at home.
A major homecoming fight for Hogan is part of the grand plan, too, but the Leinsterman is hellbent on first winning a world title so he can bring it back to Ireland and defend it here.
On DDP’s more immediate agenda, however, is Hogan’s ring return: ‘The Hurricane’ is set to feature on the same bill as Jaime Munguia in California in October with a view toward forcing a world-title rematch.
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