Not official but each party has recently expressed interest on social media. (in fact just last week before this news broke, O'Sullivan was asked by a fan on Twitter about the potential match-up and said he'd love to put their friendship aside to slug it out). From irish-boxing.com: "The Australian based fighter is keen to fight in Ireland before he retires and see’s the Cork light middle as a route home. The Kildare fighter is confident a clash between the two-time world title challenger and his fellow high profile light-middleweight would attract enough interest to fill an arena. Speaking online ‘The Hurricane’, who suffered a third career defeat to Australia’s latest star Tim Tszyu last month, revealed his ‘burning desire’ for a homecoming – and said he was more than willing to put it on the line against ‘Spike,’ in the what he believes is the biggest all Irish fight that can be made." Not mentioned in that article - nor probably remembered/known by many - is the fact that Hogan's plan, if successful in wresting the WBC middleweight title from Jermall Charlo in 2019, was to make his first defense in Dublin against none other than Spike himself. Now, it appears they may be circling back to a clash now at (the more comfortable for both) 154lbs for bragging rights instead of a belt. Given their styles it couldn't be anything but a donnybrook.
They have just the one common opponent - Jaime Aarón Munguía Escobedo - and both fought him not too long ago. While still WBO super welter champ the Mexican took a controversial MD over Hogan, and nine months in a move up to MW stopped O'Sullivan in 11.
Spike will obliterate Hogan, who's clearly done. Hogan survived and got robbed against Munguia, because he played stay away throughout, Spike took the fight to him a little too much. So those matches and their respective outcomes, mean nothing as far as this match is concerned.
