By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten heavyweight prospect Hughie Fury (18-0, 10 KOs) will be fighting tonight against the rusty 40-year-old journeyman Dominick Guinn (35-10-1, 24 KOs) in a scheduled 10 round bout on the undercard of the Nick Blackwell v. Chris Eubank Jr. card at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.
The once slender Guinn weighed in at a career high 254.5 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in, and that’s obviously not a good sign for Guinn. He’s only had two fights in the last three years, and he didn’t fight at all in 2014, and had just one fight in 2015. Guinn’s best weight was in the low 220s many years ago.
To see Guinn coming in at near 255 at Friday’s weigh-in was troubling, because he looked in awful shape. I know Guinn has never been stopped before, but he looks in such poor shape, I think we might see him get knocked out for the first time in his career if Hughie shows any initiative to try and get a knockout. Given that Guinn has a little pop in his punches, I doubt that Hughie will try much.
I think we’ll see another hit, run and hold type fight from the light hitting Hughie. I just hope he doesn’t stink up the joint before the main event between Eubank Jr. and Blackwell. It would be a real buzz-kill if Hughie fights Guinn like he did in his fights against George Arias and Andriy Rudenko. Hughie tried to mix it up with those guys, but once they smacked him in the mouth a couple of times early on, we saw nothing but hit and run stuff from Hughie for the remainder of the fight. It was so awful to look at.
“I don’t know. He’s [Guinn] never been stopped, has he? He’s fought some top heavyweights around the world,” Fury said to IFL TV about Guinn. “He ain’t been stopped. Guinn will fight for money. He’s come out to fight and that’s what he’ll do. You’ll get a good fight. I can’t say if Hughie will take him out. If he does or doesn’t, as long as he wins that’s all that matters,” said Fury.
The 21-year-old Hughie has scored two rare consecutive knockouts in his last two fights in stopping journeyman level opponents Larry Olubamiwo and Emilio Ezequiel Zarate early in those fights. It doesn’t mean that Hughie has suddenly become a big puncher. What it means is that Hughie is facing weaker opponents now after having briefly been stepped up against Rudenko. Hughie was supposed to fight Nagy Aguilera tonight, but he pulled out of the match due to an injury. Fortunately for Hughie, Guinn accepted the fight and was able to fly over to London to take him on.
Guinn is a better puncher than Hughie, and he would no doubt knock him out if the two of them were locked into a phone both to trade shots for the full 10 round bout tonight. However, the 6’6” Hughie will no doubt be standing on the outside most of the fight, and scurrying away each time Guinn even gives him a cross look.
In other words, we’re probably going o see Hughie playing the old hit and run game all night long. Hughie has a decent jab, but his right hand and left hook are weak shots. He likes to throw looping right hands. Hughie has been getting away with throwing this sloppy right against his last few opponents. However, Hughie might get found out tonight if he tries that amateurish punch against the veteran Guinn tonight, because it’s an easy punch to block and counter.
All Guinn has to do is pick off Hughie’s badly telegraphed looking right hands, and then come straight down the middle with a right hand to the head all night long. If Hughie is too slow mentally to adjust to what Guinn is doing, then we could see a minor upset tonight. I wouldn’t call a Guinn victory a major upset, because Hughie is just a light hitting prospect, who arguably is only getting attention because he’s the cousin of IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
In looking at Hughie’s fights, he doesn’t look like someone that will ever pan out as a contender. I don’t see Hughie ever being one of the top contenders in the heavyweight division, and of course, I don’t see him ever winning a world title. The punching power just isn’t there for Hughie to get to the next level. Besides that, he’s so sloppy with his skills and utterly predictable with his punch arsenal.
Hughie’s hit and run style won’t win him fights at the upper level. You’ve got to be able to stand in the pocket and trade in order to win at the upper level. If all Hughie is going to do is hit, run and hold, he’s going to come up short every time when he starts fighting the upper tier heavyweights.
It’ll look really bad to have shorter heavyweights chasing the 6’6” Hughie around the ring all night long. I hope by the time that Hughie starts facing top tier heavyweights one of these days, he’s been taught not to run from his opponents like he’s been doing, because I see him losing over and over again if that’s how he’s going to be fighting. You can’t beat top tier fighters by running at the heavyweight level. If you can’t stand and trade, then you belong at the domestic level rather than at the world level. I’m just saying.
Guinn has a real chance of winning tonight if he can time Hughie and nail him each time he attempts one of his looping right hands. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a fighter throw a looping right as wide as Hughie does. He throws it almost like a baseball pitcher throwing a pitch after they’ve had rotator cuff surgery. The arm isn’t bending at all in the elbow area. Hughie’s right arm literally stays straight while throwing his looping, clubbing right hands. It’s so easy to pick these sloppy right hands off that it’s not even funny. Guinn should have an easy time taking that right hand away from Hughie and nailing him with counter rights.
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