By Scott Gilfoid: Heavyweight prospect Hughie Fury (12-0, 7 KO’s) will be held out of the ring for the next three months to heal the deep cut that he sustained over his eye during training for his fight agaisnt David Gegeshidze last week. The cut reopened during the the fight after Hughie got nailed by a hard right hand from Gegeshidze. Hughie got he victory by a 4th round stoppage, but having the cut reopened was definitely a negative for the 6’6″ fighter.
As such, his fights that Hughie scheduled for December have been canceled and instead he’ll be fighting next on the undercard of Tyson Fury vs. David Haye against a still to be determined opponent on February 8th at the Phones 4u Arena in Manchester, UK. It would be nice to see Hughie not matched against a stiff, but I guess that’s going to be pretty much what we’ll be seeing for the 19-year-old unfortunately.
Tyson Fury said this in an interview yesterday to IFTV “Hughie’s only 19, so he has a lot of developing to do over the next 10 years. Don’t forget, Hughie’s not going to be in his prime until he’s 25 or 26 like me, so he’s a long way’s off. The bigger you are the more time you need to develop. Do not rush Hughie Fury, because he’s a star in the waiting. When I’m finished, Hughie will step inside my shoes and fill them.”
I imagine Hughie will step inside Tyson Fury’s shoes when he’s finished, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a good thing. If Tyson means that Hughie will probably be able to beat guys like Martin Rogan and Vinny Maddalone, then, yes, I definitely see Hughie stepping inside Fury’s shoes to carry on his tradition of beating 2nd and 3rd tier heavyweights. But if Fury means that he thinks that Hughie is going to be a world champion or a top five guy, then I have to disagree fully. I don’t see Hughie as having world class talent in the real sense. I mean, I can see Hughie a fringe level contender between the 12-15 spot in the world ranks someday, but not a true top guy. He might get lucky and have one of the sanctioning bodies give him a top 5 ranking based on nothing wins, but I don’t see Hughie beating anyone good to get that ranking, and I think he’ll fall apart if he gets a title shot.
With Hughie being kept out of action until February 8th, this really hurts his chances of breaking Mike Tyson’s record for being the youngest heavyweight world champion ever. Tyson did it at 20 1/2. Hughie will be turning 20 next September, so he doesn’t have a lot of time if he wants to break the record from Tyson. I think he needs to get busy and stop fighting fodder opponents pronto. I know Tyson Fury is saying he doesn’t want Hughie to be rushed, but what about all that talk of Hughie breaking Mike’s record? Was that just Fury yapping without meaning it? At this point I don’t think it would end good for Hughie if he was pushed out into the ring against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko or his brother WBC champion Vitali Klitschko. Even if they waited a year to put Hughie in the ring with either of them, it would be brutal to watch seeing young Hughie trying to fend off the huge right hand shots from the Klitschkos. Hughie needs to develop some man strength before he fights for a world title and I don’t see him developing that kind of power within a year. Can he get there in 5-6 years? It’s hard to say. I just remember Wladimir being a hard puncher when he was 19, but I guess everyone is different.
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