Rogan, Fury and Hennessy trade words at Belfast presser
The Hennessy Sports press conference to publicise the 'The Only Show In Town' fight card at the Kings Hall on the 17th September was dominated by the unannounced appearance of Martin Rogan, who was expected by many to be Tyson Fury's opponent. A match-up could not be made, leading to accusations and counter-accusations as to who was at fault. This unfolded in front of a well attended audience of press and the local boxing community.
The following is a full transcript from the stormy Belfast Press Conference centering on the clash between Martin Rogan, Mick Hennessy and Tyson Fury as to why the proposed Fury-Rogan fight fell through and who was at fault. There are two relevant details to preface this.
One. The night before the Belfast press conference Alex McGreevy issued a communication on behalf of Martin Rogan to the Irish press. Available here: http://www.irish-boxing.com/2011/08/big-roggies-tyson/
This communication listed the reasons why Rogan was unhappy with Hennessy and why the Fury-Hennessy fight did not get agreed.
Two. In the weekly ‘Seconds Out’ column in the Irish News on Tuesday 23 August, it was reported that Rogan’s proposed EBU Title fight with unbeaten Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev on October 22 was off, since last week as Rogan had given up ‘the position’. The Irish News also quoted EBU general secretary, Enza Jacoponi, stating that Rogan had withdrawn as “he had other options”.
‘The Only Show in Town’ press conference took place in The Octagon Room at the Kings Hall, Belfast. Two television crews worked a busy room, well attended by press and other members of the boxing fraternity. Fury is being interviewed by a television reporter. Mick Hennessy is doing a one-to-one interview with another reporter. This is the scene that greets a sharply dressed Martin Rogan, suited and booted, and with a twinkle in his eye.
Fury, still in the midst of his television interview, has caught sight of Rogan. There is palpable disbelief in the room, but collective anticipation. A few minutes later the top table of Mick Hennessy, Tyson Fury, Junior Witter, Stephen Haughian, Brendan Ingle, John Breen, Willie Thompson, Tommy Tolan and Kevin O’Hara are seated. Rogan takes a seat amongst the press.
Harry McGavock hosts the press conference and we hear opening statements from Hennessy and Fury. Thereafter, the room was consumed by the captivating theatre between Rogan, Hennessy and Fury that is documented below:
Fury: I am looking forward to fighting in 3 ½ weeks – it would be even better if I had an opponent. Initially, I was coming here to fight Martin Rogan, but if financial situations don’t make sense, to be honest I cannot fight anybody unless it makes sense for them. So it is one of them things.
Rogan: Tyson, a question, why do you think it did not work out between me and you?
Fury: Well to be honest with you Martin, it has got nothing to do with me. As you know I have got nothing against anybody, me and you have been good friends for a few years now. And I will fight any man on the planet. It doesn’t mean anything to me fighting. As with yourself, you are a fighting man – that’s what you do. But to be honest with you I don’t know why it is not happening. We spoke about this after the Chisora fight and you said to me ‘yeah it would be a good fight in the Kings Hall blah blah blah…and I cant wait’ yeah. Irish fight fans and fight fans around the world would love to see this fight with me and you. And unfortunately it doesn’t look like it is going to happen, but there is still time and hopefully you will sort things out and it will still be on. To be honest with you, whoever else it is, it is not going to be as a good a fight between you and me. If it is Coleman Barrett then, its not going to make much effort, I know he is the Irish Champion and Kevin McBride has just lost a fight, so who else is there?
Rogan: I don’t want to sound if I am here to just bicker I am not. As a fellow professional, as a fighter and also as a fan I am here today to support the under card. But do you not think it is a bit far out to be saying that on the one side of the coin to say I am a coward and scared of you and there you just admit the fact that it would be a great fight between you. Only two days ago or three days ago, you called me a bully. And you standing 6 ft 9 and 18 stone and me standing 6ft 2 and 16 stone, it says a lot [rest of sentence inaudible]. I have got a lot of respect for you and I know you getting chosen to say the things that you are saying. But I think it is a wee bit far out that the people that actually caused this are not actually saying what actually happened. Because I have the proof in my phone and in emails and so on. I know it is nothing to do with yourself Tyson, you are a fighter like myself and I respect that very much and the best of luck on the 17th (September).
Fury: Well I have got to answer you there Martin. Me and you have always had a decent relationship going on, yeah, I have come over and sparred with you when I was a 17 year old. We had some rounds and to be honest with you we have never had a falling out. I was nice to you and you were nice to me. We had a chat for over an hour or so [after Fury’s fight with Chisora]. And then you get [to Belfast] to tell Mick Hennessy that you are going to knock me face and knock me out and do this and do that – which I never said a thing about you, up until that. So if someone talks like that about me behind my back and didn’t say it to me face, yeah, obviously I am going to say it back. And to be honest we you, I have no upset with you at all, no wrong words, nothing. I am a man of honor and if I have something to say to a man I will say it to his face.
Rogan (tries to cut in): Yeah, yeah, I am the same, I will say it to you now….”
Fury: The fight is open. If you want the fight – take it!
Rogan: If I had have had the preparation properly instead of being…
Fury: Well you were supposed to be training to step in for Chisora and you have had all of that time [Rogan was due to step in as a reserve incase Chisora pulled out of Fury’s previous fight]
Rogan: If I hadn’t been side-skirted, Tyson, by your manager and promoter, Mick Hennessy, and people in Belfast, if I hadn’t been side-skirted by any of them, then I would have fought and I would have knocked you out.
Fury: You wouldn’t have at all.
Mick Hennessy: No one side stepped you. You came to Wembley. You were given great hospitality. You were welcomed by us, you were welcomed by Tyson. You get back to Belfast, and you start telling everyone that you are going knock him senseless and you are going to knock him cold.
Rogan: Don’t tell lies.
Hennessy: No, no, no. I am not telling lies. You told me that on the phone. You told me that on the phone!
Rogan: I told you the phone – on what date?
Hennessy: It don’t matter what date. You told me in your press thing last night ( http://www.irish-boxing.com/2011/08/big-roggies-tyson ) that I had the audacity to get John Ingle to phone you up. John Ingle is our official matchmaker. Do you know the way this game works Martin?
Rogan: Then can you tell me why someone from Belfast tried to negotiate for you instead of John Ingle?
Hennessy: You mean your friend who got you the money to come to Brentwood? [Rogan came to Wembley as a reserve fighter in case Chisora pulled out of his fight with Fury]
Rogan: He didn’t get me money, it was a business transaction.
Hennessy: And who was it done through? Your friend!
Rogan: Mick, do you know something, you are falling over yourself.
Hennessy: No, no, no. You are the one tripping up. You come from Belfast on the back of your friend, who I spoke to about the fight and then I got my official matchmaker to ring you and because you were still making excuses I rung you personally. And then, after all of the hospitality you had, you had the audacity to say you were going to knock him senseless and you were going to knock him out. If that is the case Martin – step up!
Rogan: You rang me?
Hennessy: I rang you.
Rogan: Mick, I rang you.
Hennessy: No, I rang you.
Rogan: No, I rang you.
Hennessy: There is two witnesses here, Vicky and Lee [both members of Team Hennessy].
Rogan: You sent me an email, a business email and on the top of it you disclosed what the price would be. Let me finish please, I gave you the time there to do it. You sent me an email and from the email from Vicky Squirral, you said on your email…
Hennessy: it is urgent that you ring – because I tried ringing you 3 or 4 times – that’s right.
Rogan: You sent me an email and with respect to yourself Mick I have no bad blood either, but when you start to tell lies I have to defend myself.
Hennessy: No there is no lies here, I don’t tell lies. I am in this sport and I do things properly so don’t start bullshitting about lies!
Rogan: Mick, I am a fighter and I am trying to do things properly, I am trying to….
Hennessy: Do you? Don’t say you are going to knock the man out! Step up!
Rogan: Listen, listen – why don’t you just be honest? You sent me an email on the 10th August. I immediately phoned your office, I spoke to Vicky. Vicky put me through to you and I said that because of the merry-go-round and all of the different sorts of people phoning me throughout this and the money difference that was offered to me at the start, the one you offered me, I asked you why was all of this going on? You said ‘I don’t have to speak to you’. I asked you did you get my voice mail which I left on the 28th July. You said ‘yes – but I still don’t have to speak to you Martin’! I rest my case Mick.
Hennessy: No you are not resting no case. I basically said to you….You phoned up a couple of times and our office was closed for a week, we had a week off. We spoke to your ‘friend’. First and foremost we wanted to know if you wanted the fight. So we spoke to your ‘friend’. Then after that we sent our official matchmaker to you – our official matchmaker rung you up. You weren’t interested, you weren’t taking calls. You weren’t speaking to your ‘friend’. The friend who got you a lot of money to come to Wembley – that very same ‘friend’. But, you weren’t speaking to him. So in the end, because of what I was reading, saying that I hadn’t spoken to you I actually picked up the phone and tried to speak to you three or four times. I couldn’t get through to you. Then, I sent you an urgent email with the offer in it. Once, you received that urgent email with the offer in it. That’s when you came back and we offered you huge money, so there is no point talking rubbish about this. * [Writers note] At this point and thirty minutes after the press conference had began - Harry McGavock, who was hosting the press conference for Hennessy Sports, interjected and brought the debate to a temporary end.
The press conference continued so that the other fighters (Junior Witter, Stephen Haughian, Willie Thompson, Tommy Tolan, Kevin O’Hara) and trainers (Brendan Ingle, John Breen) on the press table could be provided time to speak and answer questions from the press.
A member of the press asked Hennessy if Rogan might be considered for the Fury’s second fight in 2011 [Hennessy confirmed he wanted Fury to fight two more times before the end of 2011], possibly in December?
Hennessy: No, not for me. We have been there and done that. He (Rogan) keeps throwing the date about – August 10th. You know if you work it out – August 10th is over six weeks away (from fight date of 17th September) – if he wants to hang his hat on that date – when I physically spoke to him – apart from the other stuff. Six weeks for someone who has been in preparation – he turned up for a fight (Rogan was a reserve for the Fury-Chisora fight) and has been in training for another fight EU title fight, (EBU title fight with Kubrat Pulev on October 22) is a long time. So, if you are not going to take it after that sort of preparation and turning up at Wembley and being on it – you are not going to take it – it is that simple.
Rogan: With respect to your team and the rest of you. If you ring a man and ask the man to fight somebody else….[audio recording is not clear – missing last part of sentence]…
Hennessy: You are absolutely right Martin. ‘No’ is good enough, but you don’t follow it by ‘I will knock him senseless and I will knock him out’. You don’t do that. Listen, be a gentleman about things. If you are going to do talk like that – back it up Martin.
Rogan: Mick I have tried to speak to you like a gentleman, I have tried to do that. But prior to that the guy that you asked to phone me, I said look do me a favour ask Mick to give me a ring I have got a proposal for him and as a manager of myself I thought it was only right that as a business man like yourself, a good business man, a nice man – that you would actually contact me. But you didn’t do it, I felt very insulted.
Hennessy: I apologised for going away for a week, but I do have an official matchmaker, who makes matches – John Ingle.
Rogan: Then why did the guy from here do business?
Hennessy: Your friend, who basically agreed the money for you to come to Wembley. He was good enough to do that for you Martin. Why are you disrespecting the man – he has been good to you?
Rogan: I understand that, but when a man says no. What if a man has an injury or he has something that he doesn’t want to disclose to you or disclose to someone else? Should no, not be good enough?
Hennessy: But stop telling everyone that you are going to knock him out. He wouldn’t say it about you. I wouldn’t say it about you. We showed you maximum respect.
Rogan: Did you not ask me at short notice to come over and fight Tyson Fury, if Derek Chisora didn’t weigh in? You did.
Hennessy: I didn’t ask you personally. Your friend, who we are talking about…
Rogan: Didn’t I go over to fight (Fury) with one day’s notice?
Hennessy: Yes, and it was a business transaction.
Rogan: You are trying to turn something that…..
Hennessy: No, no, no. Martin I was unhappy about that situation – you coming over anyway. On the night of the fight, you should have been sitting in case anything was cancelled, but you was in the bar.
Rogan: No problem, no problem.
Hennessy: Yeah, that’s alright. Listen, if you want to get the facts out, then let’s get them out. I have got no problem. If you want to deal with facts let’s get them out. *Harry McGavock tries to bring the discussion to an end
Rogan: Mick all I am trying to say is that when a man says no, then that should be good.
Hennessy: That was good enough for me, but don’t tell everyone that you are going to knock him senseless. That is an insult to me taking about my fighter like that. He is a great fighter and you should have been a gentleman around the situation. But turning the fight down and then saying that in the same breath is an insult to me and to him.
Peter McDonagh (who was seated next to the press): Mick, just going back to the question about how much notice for a fight. I am a professional fighter, maybe not at the top level or whatever, right. But, you should always be in shape and ready to fight, because you never know when the phone is going to ring. So, with three weeks notice given to me – then great – I am in shape anyway.
Hennessy: There was never a truer word said and Brendan Ingle is the man to back that up (seated next to Hennessy on the press table) - his fighters have absolutely broke through and won really good titles on the back of that theory and you are right Peter, absolutely.
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Fight fans can make their own conclusions as to why the Fury-Rogan fight did not happen and who is to blame. The most telling part of the, sometimes heated debate was Rogan’s admission: “What if a man has an injury or he has something that he doesn’t want to disclose to you or disclose to someone else? Should no, not be good enough?”
Perhaps there is another reason why Rogan did not agree to fight Fury on the 17th September? In the aftermath of the blustery press conference, it is difficult to fathom why Rogan would not accept a lucrative offer to fight for the British and Commonwealth titles in his hometown of Belfast. Especially, as it has been reported that Rogan had withdrawn from his scheduled EBU title clash against Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev a “he had other options”.
After Rogan-Sexton 2, Rogan spent £10,000 of his own money on private surgery to address a serious injury to his neck. The primary motivation of undergoing this surgery was to resurrect his ring career, which makes missed opportunities for major domestic titles even more difficult to comprehend.
Time will tell what is next for Martin Rogan. It is Rogan’s decision whether or not he wants to take the Fury fight and whatever decision he makes (for whatever reason) should be respected, as he is the one taking the heavyweight punches. However, Hennessy and Fury make a valid point that it is unreasonable to follow this up with a claim that he would knock Fury out.
It is a shame that this fight could not be made, but still, the charismatic British and Commonwealth Champion, Tyson Fury is coming to Belfast, as is a good under card rammed with local fighters. That has to be good news for the Irish fight scene. Mick Hennessy confirmed that if the Kings Hall show is a success he will definitely be back to Belfast for this next show.
Tickets for 'The Only Show In Town' are on sale priced at £28.00, £50 and £100 from the Ticketmaster box office on 0844 277 4455 (24 hour).
