By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Hughie Fury (16-0, 8 Kos), the cousin of undefeated #1 WBO Tyson Fury, has been offered a world title shot against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (34-0, 33 KOs), says his father/trainer Peter Fury. He says Hughie was offered the fight with 4 weeks’ notice. Peter doesn’t say whether or not they’ll take the fight, but given that he didn’t say anything about that it tells you that he’s not going to agree to let the 20-year-old Hughie take the fight.
Hughie was the one who Peter was talking about potentially breaking Mike Tyson’s record by becoming the youngest heavyweight world champion at age 20. Well, here’s young Hughie’s chance at breaking the record, but it doesn’t look like Peter is going to accept the fight, does it? Peter hasn’t said anything about whether he’ll agree to let Hughie take the fight with Deontay, but I don’t think he’s going to.
Call just came in from USA asking @hughiefury to fight Wilder in 4 weeks. Getting noticed @Tyson_Fury
— peter fury. (@peterfury) August 2, 2015
I don’t get this “4 weeks” notice bit that Peter is talking about. Wilder doesn’t plan on fighting until September 26th. If you do the math, you’ll realize that Peter and Hughie have 7 ½ weeks to get ready for the Wilder fight, not 4 weeks. Does Peter think that September 26th is in 4 weeks? If so, then someone needs to tell Peter to use his toes to count as well as his fingers. Four weeks from now brings us to August 31st, not September 26th.
Deontay is not fighting on August 31st. Of course, if Peter is just bringing up the 4 weeks bit as cover to avoid taking criticism if he chooses to turn down the fight against Wilder, then I can understand why he might want to come up with the 4 weeks stuff. But it still doesn’t make sense for Peter to come up with the 4 weeks comment. I mean, he’d be better off just saying ‘No, I don’t want to let Hughie fight Deontay. He still doesn’t have his man strength yet, and I want to somehow try and develop some upper body strength by getting him on a weight regimen and having him do a lot of pushups.’ I think I’d respect Peter a lot more if he gave it to us straight by saying that he doesn’t fancy the fight because of Hughie’s lack of punching power rather than Peter talking about Deontay’s management wanting him to fight in four weeks.
It’s a pity that Peter won’t likely accept the offer because Hughie may never get another offer again. Hughie is tall at 6’6”, but he can’t punch and I don’t see that changing in the future. If Hughie has to fight his way into getting a world title shot like most heavyweights, he would have to one day beat some hard punching fighters. I can’t see Fury ever beating anyone with even moderate power.
After Hughie started his career in 2013 trying to be a puncher and not doing a good job of it, he’s changed his game around in his last two fights against George Arias and Andriy Rudenko to become more of a pure boxer. Instead of punching with his opposition, Hughie now lands one shot and then dashes away to the outside to avoid getting hit.
It’s kind of off putting to watch if you’re used to seeing heavyweights that mix it up more, but I think it’s the only real style that Hughie can use, because if he tries to slug with his opposition in any way, he’s going to take a beating and likely get knocked out. Hughie pretty much has to use the hit and run style. He can’t punch his way out of a wet paper bag, and he’ll clearly have major problems when he faces someone that can punch. That’s why he’s now of a hit a run artist.
If Hughie did accept the fight with Wilder, we’d probably be looking at Hughie putting on his track shoes and running all around the ring for 12 rounds to try and escape getting knocked out and winding up as Wilder’s 34th knockout victory in his short seven-year pro career. I don’t think Hughie would even try to win the actual fight. It would be a case of Hughie tasting a right hand from Wilder in the 1st round, and then if Hughie survives the shot, he’d get on his bike and dash around the ring for three minutes of every round for the full 12 rounds and just look to go the distance rather than to win. For a big man, the 6’6” Hughie moves very well. As he showed in his win over Rudenko, Hughie is more than capable of running for a full fight to keep from getting nailed.
I think Peter is going to regret not accepting this title shot for young Hughie. When he eventually faces his first puncher with a little talent and is knocked out, I can see Hughie staying in the 2nd tier level and never rising up to fight the top talents. In other words, I see Hughie as one of those tall, light hitting heavyweights that fail to get to the level. The light hitters never make it to the top. If you look at the top heavyweights in the game now, they can all punch. Even Bryant Jennings, who isn’t seen as a huge puncher, can still punch with respectable power. He’s got heavy hands and he puts his shots together well.
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