A sponsorship conflict threatens to derail Wednesday night’s clash between junior middleweight contenders Tim Tszyu 17-0 (13) and Dennis ‘Hurricane’ Hogan 28-3-1 (7).
The fight at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre in Newcastle, Australia is already close to a sellout but Team Hogan have threatened to withdraw if their fighter is prevented from wearing trunk embroidered with the name of his sponsor PointsBet.
At the press conference on Monday, promoter Matt Rose of No Limit Boxing forced Hogan to change out of his PointsBet t-shirt as one of the event’s major sponsors is rival betting agency SportsBet.
“They’ve basically tried to pull money from me,” Hogan said to News Corp. “Pull money from my family. It’s not good.
“My sponsors put bread on the table for my family.
“So wearing that shirt, what does it take away from the promoters? What does it take away from their betting agency?
“I didn’t get emotional about it today, but I have PointsBet across the front band of my shorts and I will be wearing them into the fight on Wednesday.
“There’s nothing they can do about that. The fight will not go ahead if he doesn’t.”
Hogan’s manager Danny Dimas insisted they were well within in their rights to wear the sponsored trunks and said that if they were prevented from doing so, they would not fight.
“I’m pissed off,” Dimas said. “How dare they pull a stunt like this?
“We could’ve fought the issue today but didn’t want to make a big deal about all this minutes before the press conference went live (on Fox Sports). Dennis basically had to run back to his room and change.
“But I’ve looked into the contract, looked into it with my lawyers and there is no problem.
“We’ll be going out with the sponsors gear on Wednesday night I guarantee that. If not, we’ll be calling the fight off.”
“Right now, they’re sticking to their guns and we’re sticking to ours.
“Today, we’ve been respectful, that’s it.”
Rose confirmed the threat of a walkout but said he wouldn’t be budging on his demands.
“And they’ve told me if that is the case they won’t come out,” Rose said.
“But we won’t be bowing to that.
“I actually think it’s disrespectful from the Hogan team.
“If you’re playing in the NRL and they say you can’t promote Optus because Telstra is the major sponsor, well, that’s how it is.
“We’ve got a lot of good people helping us put on these shows and you can’t just go and grab a competitor as your sponsor because you feel like it.
“So Dennis Hogan won’t be wearing those trunks to the ring. That’s it.”
