Dennis Hogan knows that his showdown with Sam Eggington this weekend is his last chance to become a world champion.
The Kildare man has lost two world title fights previously and at 37 is fully aware that Saturday's bout in Newcastle, Australia, is his final opportunity to hear the words 'and the new champion of the world...'
Having travelled the world for those previous bouts with Jamie Munguia in Mexico and Jermall Charlo in Brooklyn in 2019, Hogan has a much smoother trip from his Brisbane base this time around, but knows this is do or die.
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He said: "I don't really see any way back into contention again after this or whether even I want to do it to be fair.
"I have kids, the life of a fighter is stressful and I'm not getting any younger. It's a stressful life, you've got to be an entrepreneur as well as a combat sports fighter. There's a lot of stress involved and I've got kids to be there for too so it's now or never now at this point."
Englishman Eggington, who is nine years Hogan's junior, claimed the IBO world super welterweight belt back in June when defeating Poland's Przemyslaw Zysk in Coventry.
Saturday's bout, which is expected to start around midday Irish time, will be only the 28-year-old's second fight outside the UK and his first ever outside Europe.
How that will affect the West Midlands native remains to be seen, but Hogan believes that not letting the champion get in close to him will be key to him having his hand raised in victory.
Hogan explained: "He's going to want to get in close to me and try to work me over. I'm sure that he'll know that I'm very good with a distance so if he tries to fight at a distance I think he'll sort of see that he won't be landing as much as what he might hope.
"He'll obviously try to get in close to try and get a better opportunity of landing shots. That's where he does most of his best fighting anyway is in close. People stand in front of him and you wonder why people stand in front of him like that but I think it's because he's good at closing the distance and getting people to stand in front of him because he's able to do that.
"For me, it's very important that I'm able to keep that distance, keep my distance where I can hit him and he can't hit me more often than not and if I do get dragged in I've got to be very explosive in there so he doesn't want to come back in. Get in, be explosive, win the exchange and get back to my distance and I think if I can do that over and over again that could bamboozle him a bit and he might be short of answers halfway through the fight."
And after watching his fellow countyman Eric Donovan achieve his goal last month, Hogan is hoping to see his own dream come true this weekend.
Donovan was crowned the EU super featherweight champion with a win over France's Khalil El Hadri in Belfast and Hogan is hoping to bring a world title back to the Lilywhite County next month.
He added: "I'd love to be able to do it for Kildare. Fair play to Eric for what he's done. He had a hard fight there too but he got through it and that's a sign.
"People are saying what's the story with the older fighters these days. It probably is good inspiration for lads in their early 20s and probably saying 'ah this is tough'.
"Well be 37 and win yourself a big title. It would be great to go and win this fight well and go back to Kildare, I'm going back to Ireland in November, and it would be great to go home with the belt."
And if Hogan does win the belt on Saturday, he would love to defend it against Cork's Gary 'Spike' O'Sullivan at Croke Park if Katie Taylor's rematch with Amanda Serrano gets the green light for GAA Headquarters in 2023.
He explained: "Spike O'Sullivan has called for a fight with the winner of this one. Me and Spike are very respectful to each other, we get on very well and send messages of support to each other.
"He called out the winner of this and he also said if Boxxer had of won that purse bid for Eggington, he was going to fight on the undercard to call out the winner after the fight so he's there ready to go.
"There's a fight there ready to be made if Eddie [Hearn] wanted to do it in Croke Park if Katie gets her fight there.
"I think it has to happen. Ireland deserve it for all the years without having much boxing there. For Spike and myself to have a homecoming after 12 years would be great. I think it has to happen so fingers crossed everything goes to plan and we can do it."
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