Dennis 'The Hurricane' Hogan celebrates his most recent win over Arnel Tinampay.

Brisbane-based Irish fighter Dennis Hogan says the success of Irish boxers at the London Olympics has inspired him to greater things.

The Kildare-man is currently ranked fourth in Australia and has his eye on the Aussie title.

“We have a challenge in for the  Australasian title. The fight hasn’t materialised yet but we’re hoping that could go well,” he said.

“I’m only at it a year. Rankings will matter when we get the Australian title shot and we go looking for a world title. Because a better ranking means a higher ranked guy will then fight you.”

Hogan, who is 11 fights into his professional boxing career in Australia, left behind his job as a carpenter in Ireland to come to Australia to pursue his dream.

“This is my job 100 per cent, this is everything. I dropped everything at home to come over here and this is what I wanted to do.”

He is certainly is enjoying his move to the professional ring, a style that he feels suits him better than amateur competition.

“I have a great chin, an unbelievable chin. You could hit me with anything and it doesn’t phase me,” he told us.

Hogan and his manager Paul Keegan are working hard to line up an opponent for the Ireland versus Australia event at the Queensland Irish Club.

It will be the second such event. The first was held in Sydney in June and there are plans for a third in Melbourne.

In his most-recent fights, Hogan beat the Indonesian champion Aswin Cabuy and the Filipino, Arnel Tinampay.

It comes as no surprise that he was glued to the travails of the Irish boxers during the Olympic Games.

“I stayed up late to watch it. Katie Taylor was absolutely brilliant and I was delighted for her that she got to win the gold. John Joe Nevin was boxing superbly. The same with Paddy Barnes,” he said.

“Paddy Barnes stood out for me as well because he was fighting the world number one or Olympic world champion and he didn’t get a point the last time he fought him at the Beijing Olympics, but he got him to 15-15 and lost it on countback.”

For details on Hogan’s Brisbane fight night, see here.

Ireland's Darren O'Neill celebrates his win against Nigeria's Muideen Akanji.

Ireland’s boxers have made the perfect start to the London Olympics with Adam Nolan, John Joe Nevin and team captain Darren O’Neill all securing first round victories.

Bray-based Garda and former Wexford hurler Nolan overcame a late charge from Ecuador’s Carlos Sanchez Estacio on Sunday night to progress to the last 16 in his first Olympics.

Nevin, meanwhile, defeated Denmark’s Dennis Ceylan in the bantamweight round of 32, on a score of 21-6 while O’Neill got the better of Nigerian Mudeen Akanji on a score of 15-6 to reach the round of 16.

In gymnastics, Kieran Behan had a poor display in the vault and scored a disappointing 13.966 in his favourite event the floor, finishing 16th out of 21 overall. With only eight progressing, his journey in the event come to an end.

In cycling, Nicolas Roche, Dan Martin and David McCann failed to medal in the men’s road race. David McCann was eventually placed 55th, Nicolas Roche was 89th and Daniel Martin finished 90th.

Ireland’s first ever female Judo representative Lisa Kearney lost her match with Shugen Wu of China and is out of the Games.

And there was more disappointment in the pool.

Barry Murphy swam in the 100m breastroke heats, but finished eighth in his heat and was eliminated, while Melanie Nocher, Sycerika McMahon and Grainne Murphy all failed in their attempts to advance through the heats in a disappointing morning for Irish competitors at the Aquatics Centre in London on Sunday.

There was better news in rowing with Sanita Puspure progressing to reach the quarter-finals of the single sculls, finishing third in her heat.

In eventing, Dublin’s Aoife Clark and Master Crusoe are 12th overnight after the first day of dressage. Clark recorded a penalty score of 48.90. Cork’s Michael Ryan finished on a score of 60.20, while Mullingar’s Joseph Murphy completed the day on 55.60.

Camilla Speirs is the best of the Irish after the completion of the dressage phase of the eventing. The Kildare woman finished in a share of 27th place after scoring just 47.60 penalty points on Portersize Just A Jiff.

In sailing, Peter O’Leary and David Burrows finished in sixth place in the Star class race. They now stand second in the overall rankings at Weymouth and Portland Venue, but a cloud hangs over O’Toole who was revealed to have made a bet on an opponent.

Sources close to Irish sailor strongly defended the Corkman claiming ‘he’s done nothing wrong’ with the incident having occurred prior to a rule change that forbade betting by competitors.

Lightweight boxer Tony Bates, who turns 24 this months, is known for his fiery temperament.

Irish boxer Tony Bates is hoping to make an impact on the professional boxing scene in Australia, as he prepares for his next fight on Friday.

The 23-year-old from Clondalkin is a former Dublin junior and Leinster intermediate champion.

He has been living in Sydney for the last three years after deciding to leave his hometown behind and get serious about his boxing career.

“I wasn’t really dedicated at home, with all the distractions that go on, so when I came here I started fresh,” Bates tells the Irish Echo.

He is boxing in the lightweight division and training out of a gym in Lakemba in south-western Sydney.

Bates is learning more about professional boxing under Billy Hussein, who trains Billy “The Kid” Dib, the current IBF featherweight champion. He is also a former IBO super-featherweight world champion.

Bates can be seen sparring with Dib in a number of videos uploaded to YouTube.

Despite being the only Irish boxer at Lakemba, Bates says he has been welcomed with open arms by the gym and earned respect for his hard-working ethos.

With a new manager and respected trainer behind him, Bates is confident that he can take on some of the best boxers in his weight class.

“To be honest, I’ve sparred the top five and I’m confident that I can beat them,” he says, with an assuredness that often comes naturally to those who box for their living.

He is certainly doing well so far – winning three from three. He’ll be hoping this continues when he faces Jake Moulden on March 2, at Mansfield Tavern.

“He got two wins from two and come down from a bigger weight division,” says Bates, who is training twice a day, six days a week to prepare for the bout.

Englishman Gary Mason has been helping Bates to raise his profile and lure some new sponsors. “I’m told by a boxing aficionada that he is a good hope,” says Mason.

“I’ve been called by quite a few Irish construction companies who are interested in sponsoring Tony,” he says.

Irish pub Scruffy Murphy’s has already sponsored Bates for $2,000, while Mason’s own company, Bartercard, has chipped in $500.

It makes a change from Bates’ early days in Australia, when he juggled training with a full-time job. “It was very hard, I was working all day until 3pm and getting into the gym at 5pm,” he says.

“I’ve got a good thing going here [with management and training].

“Before I was selling tickets, putting up posters, looking for sponsors, and I didn’t get much time for myself,” he says.

Paddy Murphy is to fight for the Queensland Welterweight title in December.

Just a year after taking up boxing again, Newry native Paddy Murphy is in contention for a first professional title in Australia.

The 24-year-old former All-Ireland boxing champion moved Down Under three years ago with carpentry, not boxing, on his mind.

Murphy left behind an impressive amateur career in Northern Ireland before emigrating. He won over 95 of his 120 amateur bouts, including a silver medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Youth Games in Melbourne.   However, on arriving in Australia he soon found he could not stay away from the ring long and the sport soon lured him back to boxing in his spare time.

Since his return to the sport, he has been training with The Boxing Shop in Nathan, south Brisbane, with Gareth Williams as his coach.

“I met a fella out here from Fermanagh and he was training out in the club so I went out one night to have a look and met the coach.

“He seemed like a decent fella and it has worked out the best, it’s a really good club and he’s a really good coach,” says Murphy.

His competitive return was a success – Murphy picked up the Australian Golden Gloves amateur crown, an impressive result after two years away.

Murphy made the move from amateur to professional boxing in 2011 and remains undefeated with three wins out of three. He’s noticing the difference in the disciplines.

“Since I’ve turned pro the training has changed a bit with a bit more individual work and it has focused on the small changes you have to adapt to in the professional game,” he says.

Murphy’s next challenge is a Queensland welterweight title bout in Brisbane on December 15 against Australian Brett Smith.

“I just know that his last six fights have been five wins and a draw. He’ll be up for it too. He’s from the sunny coast. It should be a good fight over eight rounds … it’s my first time doing eight rounds,” he says.

He’s been training hard for the bout.

“Training’s tough. It’s always tough but I’ve been doing more road work, out doing more running miles than I have for previous fights.”

Murphy jogs early in the morning or in late evening to avoid the often punishing Brisbane heat.

Boxing the same night as Murphy’s title bout is Liam Hutchinson, who fights Robert Hipwell over four rounds. Hutchinson is a cousin of Irish professional boxer Paul McCloskey. He boxes out of the same club.

Marking something of an Irish invasion of boxing in Australia, the pair join recent Queensland super middleweight champion Dennis Hogan and Dubliner and light welterweight Tony Bates.

Dennis 'The Hurricane' Hogan is the new Queensland Super Middleweight Champion. (File pic)

Irish boxer Dennis ‘The Hurricane’ Hogan picked up his first professional title in Australia last Friday night.

Hogan became Queensland Super Middleweight Champion after a fourth round total knock-out over Glen Fitzpatrick.

Hogan remains undefeated.

The light-heavyweight from Kilcullen, Kildare, made the trip to Australia to make a career as a professional boxer and is now based in Brisbane with coach Steve Deller.

Steve Deller, Hogan’s trainer and promoter, has a 30 year career and was part of Hogan’s reason for making the decision to come down under.

Hogan, 26, came over with his girlfriend who left a job as a beauty therapist to move over with him.

A carpenter by trade, he is now making a name for himself in Australian boxing circuits.

In a July interview with the Irish Echo, Hogan said he becomes very patriotic when he fights in Australia and comes out to the ring to the soundtrack of The Dropkick Murphys’ song Shipping up to Boston.

Trained carpenter and light-heavyweight pugilist Dennis 'The Hurricane' Hogan from Kildare has relocated to Brisbane to carry out a career in the ring in Australia.

From the age of seven, Dennis Hogan has only ever taken one year out from boxing.

The light-heavyweight from Kilcullen, Kildare spent 2006-2007 backpacking around Australia after he had injured his hand and couldn’t fight.

In January of this year ‘Hurricane’ Hogan made the trip back to Australia to make a career as a professional boxer and is now based in Brisbane with coach Steve Deller.

“Basically I was just doing amateur back home and I’d sort of gone as far as I could go. I wanted to go professional and I wanted to come back to Australia, I have a cousin here and I knew that I would get training here,” Dennis says.

Hogan, 26, came over with his girlfriend who left a job as a beauty therapist to move over with him.

“She dropped everything to come over with me. She was a homebird and was a bit homesick for the first couple of months, but she loves it now,” he says.

Steve Deller, Hogan’s trainer and promoter, has a 30 year career and was part of Hogan’s reason for making the decision to come down under.

“I boxed on the Irish national team and we came out to Australia in 2008. That’s how I met Steve,” Hogan says.

“I knew he was a genuine guy and when I was looking to go professional, and wanted to come to Australia, I got in touch with him.”

Hogan says that Steve set him up with a place to live and “a thing to drive” so he jumped at the chance to come over.

A carpenter by trade, the boxer was working as a bouncer at Time Nightclub in Naas two nights a week and just doing some carpentry on the side.

“I wasn’t making any money,” he says.

“Boxing at home was going good, I was national champion three years ago but then I got beat by Kenny Egan in the semi-finals, so it looked like he was going to be on top. I always wanted to go professional so I decided instead of wasting time I would get into the professional game while I’m still young enough to learn the tricks.”

Having Kenny Egan in his weight also put a question mark over Hogan’s Olympic chances and while he thinks he could have stayed around and tried to beat him, he would have lost another year and a half in the professional game.

“Every country has its own boxing style, but the Australian one suits me. It has way more fight.

“Amateur is all about hitting and not getting hit, the aim is to be up on points once the bell goes. But with professional over here, once the bell goes the two lads go for it,” he says.

So far the move has been a success for Hogan who has fought three times since he arrived, winning two and drawing the other.

“I was only after getting back from Ireland seven days before the last fight [in which he drew].

“I hadn’t got over the jet-lag or anything and I had to fight really hard, I wasn’t fully in it.

“The fact that I still drew means that the career is going well,” he says.

Hogan now has plans to reduce his 79 kilo weight so that he can fight as a super middle-weight.

“I’m only 5’11, a lot of lads in the light-heavyweight category are 6’2, but it has suited me to get in under them.

“The last guy I fought weighed in at 84 kilos so I fought a man who was five kilos heavier than me. It’s a sign I shouldn’t be there. He’s probably a stone heavier than me in the fight which makes a big difference to the punches,” he explains.

With a lot of hard training and a caveman diet, which involves no processed food, Hogan plans to get into the super middle-weight category soon.

The Hurricane admits that he gets very patriotic when he fights in Australia and comes out to the ring to the soundtrack of the Drop Kick Murphy’s song Shipping up to Boston.

“There was about 70-80 Irish people in the crowd at my last fight and it really means a lot to have them there, when they’re all screaming you on it’s like having another hand in the ring,” he says.

His next fight is against Callan Orchard on August 12 at the Boxing Fit Arena, Port Melbourne, Victoria.

“My next fight is a step up in class, he’s got five wins and one loss. He beat the guy he lost to two weeks ago in a rematch.

“Also, he’s from Victoria, we’re fighting in his home place so I’m going to have to put up an extra special effort,” he says.

Whether it’s a tough fight or not, the 26-year-old is still pretty sure that he has another ten years left in him.

“I don’t know anything else but boxing,” he says.