Dennis Hogan is a man who is used to confounding expectations.
The 34-year-old fighter steps into the ring at Brooklyn's Barclays Centre on Saturday night hoping to take the WBC Middleweight crown from Jermall Charlo, a fighter who has yet to taste defeat in his professional career.
Few give Hogan much of a chance of causing an upset.
The bookmakers have him as an 8/1 underdog, boxing pundits and experts can’t see anything but a knock-out victory for the defending champion and even Charlo himself appears to be looking past Hogan and towards his next fight.
Hogan however is not paying any attention to the naysayers and, as he done for his entire career, he's backing himself to go in and get the job done.
After all, this is a man who really went the long way about establishing himself as a contender - 16,705km all the way from Kildare to Brisbane to be precise.
Hogan carved out an impressive reputation for himself as an amateur fighter in Ireland over the course of a 150 fight career, but as with so many other young Irish people in the recession-hit early years of the decade, he was tempted to Australia in the search of work.
While most other Irish folk in Hogan’s situation head to Australia on the hunt for work on the building sites or pubs, the Kildare man was trusting in his fists.
"There was a recession in Ireland and there was no real professional boxing going on, and if there was, it was very few and far between," he explained. "I just said I'd do it and see what happened."
What happened, was that Hogan carved out a hugely successful professional boxing career for himself, initially as a local fighter in Brisbane and then country wide, amassing Queensland titles, Australian belts and eventually continental crowns.
What was supposed to be a year Down Under quickly became a new life for Hogan and with it came a family and new opportunities.
Hogan quickly became a firm fan favourite and a major figure on the Australian boxing scene. After a tough eight-year slog he earned himself a shot at the WBO super welterweight title, taking on undefeated champion Jaime Mungaia in Mexico last April.
The fight in Monterrey appeared to go to plan for the Irishman. He connected with more punches and showed the greater work and desire to frustrate his opponent, rarely getting caught, with Munguia admitting afterwards that it had been a difficult night.
But the judges saw it differently and awarded the home boxer the win on a majority decision, 115-113, 116-112 and 114-114.
An appeal followed and embarrassingly for the WBO of the five judges that re-scored the fight, only one gave it to Mungaia, with three saying it was a draw and one claiming Hogan was the victor.
However, as the initial decision could only be reversed in the case of fraud or a law being broken, the WBO rejected the appeal.
A rematch promised by Mungaia’s camp in the wake of the controversial bout has still yet to materialise and so Hogan has set his sights on Charlo’s WBC crown.
Hogan is full of confidence going into the fight as believes that despite few giving him a chance of upsetting Charlo, he’s going to be leaving Brooklyn with the belt.
"I can't wait to go out there and make my dreams come true," he said at the pre-fight press conference.
"I've got to a whole new level in terms of what I could accomplish and achieve in terms of training hard and smart. I've left no stone unturned.
"Every opponent I have thinks they are going to knock me out. It’s like my coach says, 'it's not how hard you can throw them, it's how hard you can land them’. That's where people have had difficulty with me, I'm able to hold off fighters always. Once I land clean, people know that I mean business and they don't tend to want to come in as much.
"I can land, I'm very, very accurate. He will be feeling those punches and whether he wants to come in then and load up is going to be another story."
"I've got an extra snap on my punches right now. The power is there, I'm strong, I'm not having to dehydrate as much and that's going to make all the difference. I'm really excited."
"We built some extra muscle in certain areas for this fight and I feel a lot stronger because of that," Hogan added.
"My coach is brilliant at spotting weaknesses in opponents. Charlo doesn't have many weaknesses, but there are things that I can capitalize on with the right game plan. Even Muhammad Ali had these areas, so everybody has them, and it's about capitalizing on them."
"We’re going to go out there and put on a great fight. One of us is going to walk out with the WBC belt and I truly believe it’s going to be me."
The supremely confident Charlo is contemptuous of Hogan's chances, however and dismissed any threat that he might be able to offer.
"You’re coming to Brooklyn, you’re coming to my house, bringing your people to my house to see what I’ve got. You’re going to find out.
"You're number 30 [in the rankings], you know that," the Champion said dismissively. "Merry Christmas to you and Happy New Year to you and all your family and that's all you get."
Hogan has already sprung enough surprises in his career to indicate that it may not be too wise to write him off and on Saturday night, Charlo may well be made to eat his words.
