Patrick ‘The Punisher’ Hyland teams up with ‘Jersey Shore’s’ Snooki

Patrick "The Punisher" Hyland expects to kick off his American dream in January before earning some major titles in 2012. The undefeated Dublin featherweight relocated to New York in September having secured a lucrative deal with Team Snooki, a new U.S. promotional outfit figure headed by Jersey Shore sensation Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi.

Hyland has been settling the U.S. and working alongside new trainer Tracy Harris Patterson, son of the former world heavyweight champ Floyd Patterson.

With a 24 fight unbeaten career log Hyland is in possession of the longest unbeaten run in Irish boxing, and he's confident of extending that perfect record and bagging some major titles in 2012.

"I'm still waiting on final confirmation but my first fight under the new deal will be in mid January on either the 14th or 19th," said Hyland.

"I'm enjoying life over here so far, it's certainly very different from home but it's been a good experience. I've met up with Snooki a few times now, we had a photo shoot recently. I also flew out to Vegas for the Pacquiao-Marquez fight as she was having her birthday party there on the same weekend.

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“She is a massive celebrity. It's crazy really -- she has almost 3.75 million people following her on Twitter, that's not far off the population of Ireland so in that sense I think her involvement will really help to build my profile in the U.S. It will be up to me to get the business done inside the ring."

Hyland insists that the Jersey Shore party lifestyle isn't for him and he's focused on getting his hands on a world title as soon as possible. "I'm based in upstate New York so it's pretty peaceful up here and a long way from the Jersey Shore! Up here I'm more concerned about avoiding a bear when I'm out running than avoiding the pubs and clubs,” he says.

"I'm already in a good routine over here in terms of training hard with Tracy and getting some good sparring in. I'm also working with a strength and conditioning coach so I'm very happy with the way things are going right now. I'll be training hard and watching my diet over Christmas so there will be no turkey for me."

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Nster.com