By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Hughie Fury (18-0, 10 KOs) could be fighting #5 WBA Alexander Ustinov (33-1, 24 KOs) for his next fight on March 26 on the undercard of the Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Nick Blackwell fight next month at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.
Hughie’s trainer/father Peter Fury says that an offer has been made to the 39-year-old Ustinov and a contract sent out to him. This is only one month’s notice for the 6’7”, 288lb Ustinov.
You would have to hope that he’s in good shape because if not, he’s probably not going to have much time to burn off the blubber to get ready.
Tyson Fury had a chance to fight Ustinov in 2014, but he pulled out of the fight at the last second. Some boxing fans thought that Tyson was afraid of Ustinov because the Belarusian fighter had recently shown a lot of improvement and it would have been a likely very tough fight for Fury to win.
Ustinov would be a major step up in class for Hughie because he’s been fighting weak opposition since he turned pro in 2013. In Hughie’s last three fights, he’s beaten Larry Olubamiwo, Emilio Ezequiel Zarate and George Arias. Those are second tier fighters and not the type of guys that get you ranked in a hurry. However, if Hughie were able to beat Ustinov, it would likely get him a top 10 ranking.
We now offered Ustinov ranked no 5 WBA WBO. & contracts gone out. Frank warren trying to make this happen" awaiting news from Frank.
— peter fury. (@peterfury) February 20, 2016
Of course, you can make an argument that Hughie isn’t ready to be ranked highly. I mean, it’s not as if Hughie would be able beat one of the heavyweight champions. If Hughie were to fight IBF champion Charles Martin, WBC champ Deontay Wilder or WBA “regular” champion Ruslan Chagaev, I think it would end badly for Hughie, because he’s not ready to be fighting guys in that class.
“As you know Fedisov asked for a price & was agreed. He’s ranked 7 WBA IBF. They declined,” said Peter Fury on his Twitter. “We not looking at world titles for Hughie. But good learning fights we not afraid of him mixing in the top ten. Ranking don’t matter.”
Peter Fury says heavyweight contender Andrey Fedosov turned down the fight. You could understand why he wouldn’t want to take the fight. There just isn’t much time to get ready for the fight, and it’s obviously not a good thing to be fighting in a foreign country against a home fighter. The last thing a heavyweight needs is to get robbed and then find themselves getting dropped from the top 15.
The 21-year-old Hughie is the cousin of IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. At 6’6”, Hughie is pretty close to Tyson in height, and he’s got about the same amount of punching power as him, which isn’t much at all.
If they do get Ustinov for Hughie, I think it’s going to be a very difficult fight for the young Hughie, because he doesn’t have any punching power. Hughie would need to resort to his hit and run style that he used in his ugly to watch fight against Andriy Rudenko last year in February 2015. Hughie won the fight by a 10 round decision, but he had to run the entire time. It was just bad to watch. Hughie wouldn’t be able to stand and trade with Ustinov because he punches too hard.
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