By Scott Gilfoid: In a real stinker, unbeaten heavyweight prospect Hughie Fury (20-0, 10 KOs) beat high level journeyman Fred Kassi (18-4-1, 10 KOs) by a dull 7th round technical decision win to capture the vacant WBO International heavyweight title on Saturday night at the Copper Box Arena in London, UK. The crowd basically booed Hughie nonstop. I’ve never seen a home fighter booed as much as Hughie was.
That was pretty sad to see. I wonder what Tyson Fury was thinking in watching this spectacle? It’s not as if he could stand up and convince the crowd not to boo Hughie, because after all they had paid their hard-earned money to see what they had hoped would be an exciting fight. It was a fight, but it sure wasn’t exciting.
The fight was halted in the 7th due to a cut that the 21-year-old Hughie had suffered from a clash of head in the 6th round. The cut was over the left eye of Hughie. Referee Terry O’Connor had the ringside doctor examine Hughie’s cut left eye and the contest was stopped at that point. The fight then went to the scorecards and Fury won by the scores of 69-66, 70-64, and 69-65. Hughie looked very, very tired by the 6th round from the pressure that Kassi was putting on him.
Kassi was forcing Hughie to move constantly and defend. Some of the shots that Kassi landed in both the 5th and 6th round had Hughie looked worried and tired. I think Kassi’s shots drained the energy out of Hughie in a big way. If the fight had gone the full 12 round distance, I don’t know if Hughie would have won because he was exhausted and had nothing on his limp punches. The difference in power between the two fighters was incredible. Kassi’s shots were so much stronger that it wasn’t even funny. Hughie looked like he had nothing on his noodle-armed shots. They were like the punches you’d see from someone that was totally exhausted.
The way that Kassi was wearing Hughie down with his constant pressure and big power shots to the head reminded me a lot of the 1998 fight between a young Wladimir Klitschko and Ross Puritty. Wladimir was worn completely down by the pressure from the veteran Puritty and halted in the `11th round. Wladimir looked as exhausted as young Hughie did. I hate to say it but I think Kassi would have knocked the tired Hughie out if the fight had gone the distance.
Kassi was definitely getting to Hughie and had him fighting on fumes by the 6th round. Referee Terry O’Connor did Hughie a huge break by stopping the action to have his cut examined in the 7th round, because Kassi was really getting to Hughie. He was really tired from the pressure that Kassi put on him. Hughie cannot handle pressure. I think that’s what we learned from tonight’s fight. He can handle a little bit if pressure early on, but when his opponents fail to cave in, he struggles. Hughie has had it easy in his career up until now, but he clearly wasn’t ready for the amount of pressure the veteran Kassi was putting on him.
Hughie looked worse than Arreola and Breazeale did in their fights against Kassi. Both of those guys fell apart too in the later rounds from the pressure that Kassi was putting on them. However, they didn’t have their fights stopped the way Hughie did. He was very, very lucky with the fight being stopped like that because he was dog tired and Kassi looked like he wasn’t going to stop for anything. Kassi wanted blood tonight and he wasn’t going to be satisfied until he got it.
In the 6th, the two fighters were on the ropes when the head contact was made. At the time, Hughie looked totally drained as if it was all he could do to hold Kassi after getting hit with a big right hand.
It was a pretty weak performance from Hughie. The 6’6” Hughie fought passively in choosing to jab and stay far away from the big shots from the much shorter 6’0” Kassi. Hughie had all the advantages in size, but he appeared to be afraid to let his hands go for fear of getting nailed by one of the big shots from the 36-year-old Kassi.
Hughie seemed uncomfortable with the way that Kassi was changing stances and looking to take his head off with pot shots. After getting nailed by some big shots from Kassi early in the fight, Hughie took no chances at all and chose to play it safe by jabbing and basically stinking up the joint. The fans wanted to see a fight, but what they saw from Hughie was a safety first type of performance that was similar to how Tyson Fury fought against Wladimir Klitschko last November.
All in all, it was a pretty poor performance from Hughie. If he wants to be considered as someone that can fight for a world title in the future, then he’s going to need to show some fire in the ring and take some chances. The guy is as big as a house but fights more a small heavyweight than a guy 6’6”.
Hughie really put the crowd to sleep tonight and I’m surprised that he wasn’t booed out of the ring because that was some of the worst fighting I’ve seen since Fury fought Wladimir. I don’t know if Tyson Fury’s fighting style is rubbing off on the young Hughie or what. Whatever the case, Hughie needs to start showing some courage in the ring by letting his hands go instead of fighting so timidly.
In looking at Hughie struggle tonight against Kassi, it’s hard to believe that WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder offered him a fight last year. Hughie’s team reportedly turned it down. It’s a good thing that he did because the 6’7″ Deontay would have been a nightmare for Hughie. I think the fight would have a pure massacre with Deontay bouncing huge rocket right hands of Hughie’s grill for as long as the fight lasted, which probably wouldn’t have been more than a round or two at best. Hughie needs MAJOR improvements before he ever fights a live body. I’m just saying. I wouldn’t be Hughie if I had to fight someone good like Deontay or some of the other top heavyweights.
Other boxing results on the card:
Ryan Walsh TKO 5 James Tennyson
Lewis Pettitt TKO 2 Tibor Nadori
Joe Pigford TKO 1 Mike Byles
Vijender Singh TKO 5 Matiouze Royer
Anthony Yarde KO 6 Tzvetozar Iliev
Nathan Gorman TKO 2 Hrvoje Kisicek
Ben Smith pts 4 Fonz Alexander
DP Carr pts 4 Qasim Hussain
