By Scott Gilfoid: 19-year-old heavyweight prospect Hughie Fury (12-0, 7 KO’s) still believes that he’ll be breaking Mike Tyson’s record as the youngest heavyweight world champion of all-time. Mike Tyson was only 20 1/2 when he first captured a world title when he stopped WBC heavyweight champion Trevor Berbeck in the 2nd round back in 1986. Hughie just turned 19 last September.
What this means is that if the 6’6″ Hughie is to have any chance of breaking the record, he’ll need to fight for a world title by next year or early 2015. If he fails to do then Hughie won’t be breaking the record.
“I’m improving every single fight,” Hughie said via Fightnews. “But I will do it, I will beat Mike Tyson’s record and be the youngest heavyweight world champion.”
I think Hughie has inherited his cousin Tyson Fury’s ability to talk himself up. There’s just no way possible on this earth that Hughie is going to break Mike Tyson’s record as the youngest heavyweight world champion. For starters, Hughie is still fighting 3rd tier opposition at this point, and he’s not even cut his teeth on 2nd tier comp. Hughie isn’t looking great against the fodder that he’s being put in with. The power isn’t there, the defense isn’t there, and the hand speed isn’t there. Hughie just looks like a shorter version of Tyson Fury right now, and that’s not good.
For Hughie to get a world title shot within the next 14 months, he’s going to need to stop fighting guys like Dorian Darch, Moses Matovu and David Gegeshidze, and start fighting some good fighters, preferably world contenders. Hughie isn’t going to get picked out by any of the world champions as an optional title defense, so I hope he’s not kidding himself about that. This isn’t the movie “Rocky” where Apollo Creed picks out a non-ranked fighter for the heck of it because he likes his name.
I hate to say it but Hughie would be massacred if they shoved him into the ring with Wladimir Klitschko for a world title shot. Can you imagine what Wladimir would do with the light hitting Hughie? It would be too easy for Wladimir.
The heavyweight division is too good right now for a fighter like Hughie to come along and get a title shot after beating the likes Darch and Matovu.
I suspect it’s going to take Hughie around 5-7 years before he gets a world title shot with the competition he’s facing and with him looking the way he is. He doesn’t have to fight anyone good to eventually get a title shot, but he’d be better off if he did so that he could improve. Hughie isn’t going to improve fighting the weak opposition he’s been fighting. He’s not going to get better sparring Tyson Fury. He’s needs to spar with really good heavyweights for him to get better, and I don’t see that happening.
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