Rising 154lbs star Tim Tszyu continued his inexorable march towards a world title shot with a five-round pounding of Irish-Australian Dennis Hogan at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre in Australia on Wednesday.
The towel came in during the fifth round with a relentless Tszyu finding Hogan hard to miss. Tszyu (18-0, 14 KOs) had suffered a cut left eye after a clash of heads in the second, but was in otherwise dominant form against the former two-time world title challenger.
Hogan (28-4-1, 7 KOs) hung in there with his inherent toughness, withstanding a brutal and crippling body attack in the third. But Tszyu cranked up the pressure until Hogan finally wilted.
A left uppercut dropped Hogan in the fifth and, with a ceaseless Tszyu battering him with impunity, his corner intervened to save their man later in the same frame.
“To get Hogan out quicker than [WBC middleweight champion Jermall] Charlo [who beat Hogan in seven rounds in December 2019], I felt was a good performance,” said Tszyu afterwards.
“We want the real straps and we want them here in Australia. What can I say, we’ll keep proving y’all’s wrong.”