By Scott Gilfoid: WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker’s 12 round unanimous decision against Hughie Fury (20-1, 10 KOs) is a good one, according to World Boxing Organization vice president John Duggan. He has no problems with the results of the Parker vs. Fury fight, which took place last Saturday night on September 23 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
The fight was staged in Hughie’s hometown in front of a large crowd of his boxing fans. The judges scored the fight 118-110, 118-110 for Parker, and 114-114. After the fight, Hughie and his team were highly upset about the scoring of the fight. They felt that Hughie deserved the win. Hughie’s promoter Mick Hennessy said he would appeal the decision to the WBO.
Hughie’s boxing fans didn’t boo him out of the Manchester Arena, but they would have helped him if they had let him know that they wanted to see him start fighting. Maybe if the boxing fans had booed Hughie early, he would have turned things around by going after Parker and throwing some actual punches to make a fight of it.
The Parker-Fury fight seemed like an easy one to pick a winner. Hughie didn’t throw many meaningful punches in the fight, as he was more preoccupied with moving, clinching and jabbing without trying to connect. The jabs Hughie threw were ones that wouldn’t connect with Parker’s face. It looked like the intent of the jabs was to make Parker think twice about attacking Hughie rather than on scoring.
Parker was the only one trying to fight. He was attacking all the time, but Fury was moving all the time. It was almost impossible for Parker to catch up to Hughie. The times where Parker would get near enough to land a punch, he could get tied up in a clinch by Hughie.
The referee Marcus McDonnell should have done something about Hughie’s holding and lack of fighting, but he didn’t give him any warnings. Hughie’s own trainer needed to tell him that he was giving the fight way early because it seemed clear to anyone that was watching the fight that he wasn’t going to win the fight by the tactics he was using.
“I think he won the fight,” Duggan said to Newshub via Fight News about Parker winning. “I think he won a close fight. Just because the score was wide, doesn’t mean it wasn’t close. With the way boxing’s scored, you can have an extremely close fight and have a boxer win every round by a close margin. That happens quite a bit. I thought the score (118-110) was regular, and I thought the 114-114 score was somewhat unusual. [Parker] deserved the win. He boxed courageously in a hostile environment.”
So there it is. Duggan sees Parker as the winner and Hughie as the loser. I guess that means no rematch for Hughie. As they say, ‘Better luck next time.’ Maybe the next time Hughie fights for a world title, if there is a next time, he’ll have the sense to throw some punches.
It’s doubtful that Hennessy’s appeal with the WBO will go anywhere. It was easy to score the fight. Hughie appeared to win 2 rounds, and those were very close rounds. The other 10 rounds were clear rounds in which Parker did the better work. Boxing News 24 scored the fight 118-110 in favor of Parker. Hughie didn’t do enough.
It’s unclear how far the WBO will drop Hughie down in their rankings. If they don’t drop him too far, then perhaps he can come again in a year or 2 if he can pick up some solid wins by beating one or two of the top contenders. With the way that Hughie has fought his last 2 opponents Parker and Fred Kassi, I don’t see him capable of beating any of the top contenders in the division. That means that it’s probably going to take Hughie a long time for him to get ranked high enough for him to get another No.1 ranking with the WBO. It’s likely that’s the sanctioning body that Hughie will stay with for the time being. Once Anthony Joshua faces Parker for the WBO title, I expect Joshua to win that fight and add the WBO belt o his collection. Joshua and Parker’s management have already started negotiating for a fight next summer. Joshua needs to get past Kubrat Pulev on October 28 first.
Hughie needs to think seriously about getting a different trainer. There’s no way that a quality trainer like Virgil Hunter or Freddie Roach would have allowed Hughie to run around the ring for 12 rounds without throwing punches in the Parker fight the way that Peter Fury did. The fact that Hughie was even fighting like that in the first place against Parker suggests that he wasn’t well trained. If Hughie doesn’t have the physical ability to fight at a prominent level, then that needs to be found out so he can move on to some other type of occupation. But Hughie at least needs a good trainer to teach him how to throw punches properly, and stand his ground.
Hughie wasn’t doing either of those things against Parker and in his previous fight against Fred Kassi. Hughie is only 23, so he should be able to work his way back into another title shot within 3 years from now if he starts winning again. I don’t see Hughie getting a title shot in the next 2 years though. Not with the way he fought against Parker. That was just awful to look at. The power isn’t there for Hughie, but worse than that, he doesn’t have the ambition to even try and throw power shots. That’s the sad thing. You’d expect a lot more for a guy related to Tyson Fury. Hughie should have absorbed knowledge in how to fight by this point in his life. He didn’t look like he had clue one in how to fight against Parker.
I don’t see any of the talented contenders at heavyweight that Hughie can beat at this point. If Hughie has to fight a good contender for him to get a title shot, then it’s unlikely he’ll ever fight for another world title again. I see Hughie losing to all of these contenders:
Kubrat Pulev
Carlos Takam
Dillian Whyte
Dominic Breazeale
Luis Ortiz
David Haye
Jarrell Miller
If Hughie’s management takes the backdoor method of getting him a title shot by matching him against weak heavyweights, then I think it’s possible he’ll get another crack at a world title in 3 years. That’s the only way I see Hughie getting another title fight.
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