Martin Rogan (born 1 May 1977) is an Irish former

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

who competed from 2004 to 2014. At regional level, he held the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Male boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 2 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation an ...

title in 2009; and won the inaugural

Prizefighter series The Prizefighter series was a professional boxing tournament created by boxing promoter Barry Hearn and aired on Sky Sports. The format has an initial eight fighters, who compete in four quarter-finals of rounds (number and length of the rounds ...

in 2008.

Professional career

On 11 April 2008, Rogan won the

heavyweight competition on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

, beating David Dolan in the final by a unanimous decision after knocking his opponent down twice. He beat Alex Ibbs in the quarter-final by

TKO A technical knockout (TKO) is a professional fighting term. TKO may also refer to: Sports * TKO, the name of a professional wrestling move referring to either the cutter or stunner variant * TKO Group Holdings, a combat sports company Music Ar ...

and Dave Ferguson on points in the semi-final. On 15 May 2009 he lost to Sam Sexton. Rogan was due to face

Audley Harrison Audley Hugh Harrison, (born 26 October 1971) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2013. As an amateur, he represented Great Britain at the 2000 Olympics, winning a gold medal in the super-heavyweight division and ...

at Aston Villa Events Centre,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

on 19 July 2008. However, the fight was delayed due to television schedules. The fight eventually took place on 6 December 2008, with Rogan defeating Harrison over ten rounds. The referee Ian John-Lewis scored the encounter 96–95. On 28 February 2009, Rogan became the Commonwealth heavyweight champion in a

fight of the year Fight of the Year is an award given to the boxing match considered to be the best fight that year. It is awarded by a variety of different institutions. It may refer to: * ''The Ring'' magazine Fight of the Year – awarded by ''The Ring'' magazi ...

contender which could have gone either way against reigning champion

Matt Skelton Matt Skelton (born 27 January 1967) is a British former professional boxer, kickboxer, and mixed martial artist. In boxing he competed from 2002 to 2014. He challenged once for the WBA heavyweight title in 2008. At regional level, he held th ...

. During the fight the momentum see-sawed from one man to the other however Rogan prevailed in the brawl by beating Skelton with an 11th round stoppage by TKO. Rogan's first defence of his Commonwealth heavyweight title against

Sam Sexton Sam Sexton (born 18 July 1984) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2005 to 2018. At regional level, he held multiple heavyweight championships, including the Commonwealth title from 2009 to 2010; the British title from 2017 ...

, at the

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

on 15 May 2009. Sexton defeated Rogan, handing him his first professional loss, after the doctor ruled that Rogan was unfit to continue in the 8th round due to a closed eye. Rogan's rematch with Sam Sexton on 6 November 2009, once again at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, ended in Rogan's corner pulling him out after the end of the sixth round due to a neck and arm injury. Since the defeats to Sexton, Rogan took exactly a year before making a return to the ring after undergoing career-saving neck and spinal operations. He won two fights within two weeks against Yavor Marinchev and Werner Kreiskott in Ireland. Rogan was scheduled to fight Bulgarian boxer Kubrat Pulev for the European Heavyweight title but pulled out citing lack of preparation. The Pulev fight was originally rescheduled for November in Germany although Rogan was instead scheduled to fight former cruiserweight world title challenger Lewis Andreas Pineda for the vacant WBU World Heavyweight title on 27 October at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast., The fight with Pineda was cancelled after the British Boxing Board of Control refused to sanction it because of doubts over ownership of the WBU belt; two organizations were claiming jurisdiction over the title. On 14 April 2012 Rogan fought

Tyson Fury Tyson Luke Fury (born 12 August 1988) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2008 to 2024. He held multiple world heavyweight championships, including unified titles from 2015 to 2016, the '' Ring'' magazine title twice bet ...

for the vacant Irish heavyweight title at the Odyssey Area in Belfast and lost via fifth-round TKO On 9 February 2013 Rogan returned to the ring, and winning ways, by outpointing the Czech Republic's Ladislav Kovarik over four rounds in at fight on the undercard of Carl Frampton's EBU (European) super bantamweight title challenge against

Kiko Martinez Kiko or KIKO may refer to: People *Kiko (given name), includes a list of people with the name Other uses *''Kikō'', the Japanese form of the Chinese term ''qigong'' *''KIKO'', a 2015 compilation album by Panda Eyes * ''Kiko'' (album), by Los Lobo ...

Professional boxing record

References

External links

*
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rogan, Martin Heavyweight boxers Boxers from Belfast 1971 births Living people Male boxers from Northern Ireland Prizefighter contestants Commonwealth Boxing Council champions