When Dennis Hogan went down via seventh round stoppage against Jermall Charlo in December 2019, the Brisbane-based Irishman knew something had to change.
The 36-year-old fighter had travelled to Brooklyn to fight Charlo in his own backyard after going down in a controversial loss to Jamie Munguia in Mexico earlier that year. Even though he lost to Munguia, keen judges in the US were impressed with the Irishman's tenacity and willingness to take on the bigger names.
Hogan had one more fight on his deal in the US and was starting to resent the constant travel and the impact it was having on his body.
"I was having to uproot and fly all the way to America to fight," Hogan told Wide World of Sports. "Especially for the last one I had to fly over for the press conference, come back again continue training, then fly back over again.
"It was getting incredibly difficult and I did have a fight left on my contract there and I decided I was going to set up camp in America and see what coach was going to work for me there."
Hogan left trainer Glenn Rushton – who trained Jeff Horn to a world title against Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao in 2017 – to work with the former WBC bantamweight champion Wayne McCullough in Las Vegas.
After two title shots under Rushton's guidance and opportunities flourishing in the United States, Hogan said he needed to spread his wings.
"I've had a good few fights with Glenn. I've learned a lot off him. The things that are good stick with me," Hogan said.
"Some of the stuff Glenn had, I find at that top level in America, for the likes of a (Jermall) Charlo I really wanted to get a bit more knowledge about how to fight someone like that.
"And I have learned quite a lot from my camp with Wayne in America. Wayne is overseeing the training along with assistant coach Stephen Edwards (formerly Horn's cut man) the guys are in constant contact and they've developed a great plan. We're putting it together, I just couldn't be happier with my team but that's nothing on Glenn – me and Glenn had a great relationship and we will continue to be friends ongoing."
Rushton came under increasing pressure for the way he dealt with Horn in his TKO loss to Tim Tszyu. After being dropped twice earlier in the fight, Horn struggled to remain competitive and could barely answer his corner when they asked if he had it in him to continue.
Rushton's determination for Horn to continue was at odds with the rest of the fighter's corner, with the scenes caught on camera. Rushton argued that if he hadn't pushed Horn to keep fighting against Pacquiao then he probably wouldn't have won that fight.
The Queensland trainer is well known within boxing circles for squeezing every last drop out of his fighters. Rushton's training sessions are famously brutal; he's firm in the belief that they need to be to prepare his fighters for whatever might be thrown at them in the ring. However, Hogan admitted that over time that intensity started to become unsustainable.
"Glenn will get you to reach levels of training that you've never got to before but consistently backing that up over and over again may not always be what you need," Hogan said.
"I certainly felt like with my last fight with Charlo, he's had a go at me in the Courier Mail about certain things. We trained harder for that Charlo fight than we ever did an amount of work where I could see the positive and the negative.
"The negative is it was too much for one fight, especially when we knew about the fight 14 weeks out.
"The positive is I never have to do it again and I know what I'm capable of doing but it is in my better interest now to be fresher and fitter come fight night and you'll see that for this fight."
Against Tszyu next Wednesday night, Hogan says he hopes to put into action some of the finishing moves he's learnt in camp with McCullough, combining that with some of the things Rushton brought to the table.
"At that high level there's a difference. There's just a knowledge of being in there at that level and backing up for camps over and over again," Hogan said.
"But what I do like about Glenn's mindset is that you can overcome and do everything.
"So taking a little bit of Glenn's mindset in terms of nothing can stop you and you can achieve anything and mixing it with a little bit more of preparation and recovery I think I got the perfect mix moving forward."
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