By Scott Gilfoid: Well, it looks like we can forget about unbeaten heavyweight prospect Hughie Fury (18-0, 10 KOs) facing a top contender like his trainer Peter Fury was talking about. Instead of facing a contender, the 6’6” Hughie will be fighting a struggling journeyman in Nagy Aguilera (20-9, 14 KOs) on March 26 at the Wembley Arena in London, UK.
This is a really disappointing fight. I thought Hughie was going to get bumped up against a first tier opponent. There was talk of Hughie fighting Alexander Ustinov, a top five contender in the heavyweight division. That would have been a good fight if it had come off, but for whatever reason, we’re not getting Ustinov on March 26. We’re getting journeyman Aguilera.
The Fury-Aguilera fight will take place on the Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Nick Blackwell card. It’s unclear where the Hughie vs. Aguilera fight will appear on the card. I would guess it would be one of the first fights shown, because a mismatch like this would be an atrocious fight for the co-feature. I’m just saying. Who needs a mismatch in the co-feature bout?
Aguilera, 29, has lost two out of his last three fights in defeats against Dominic Breazeale and Gerald Washington. Aguilera has also been beaten by Tomasz Adamek, Chris Arreola, Samuel Peter, and Antonio Tarver. The high point of Aguilera’s career came in 2009, when he beat an aging Oleg Maskaev by a surprise 1st round knockout. Unfortunately for Aguilera, this didn’t lead to more success. It led instead to him facing Samuel Peter in his next fight and getting stopped in two rounds.
While you can argue that Aguilera is a step up from Hughie’s last opponent Larry Olubamiwo, it’s not much of a step up. About the only difference I can tell is Aguilera has a better chin than Olubamiwo. Yeah, Aguilera can bang if you stand in front of him and slug it out. However, Hughie doesn’t fight like that. He has a hit and run style of fighting that precludes him trading with his opponents. As such, the 6’3” Aguilera’s only real chance of landing anything big against Hughie is if he can time him when he comes forward to deliver one of his telegraphed power shots.
Hughie seems to be trying to sit down on his shots a little more than he used to. In the past, Hughie showed absolutely no power in his punches. But in his last two fights against Olubamiwo and Emilio Ezequiel Zarate, the 21-year-old Hughie has picked up early knockouts.
What it looks like to me is that Hughie is putting his entire body into each power shot. He’s getting more power, but it’s still not major power. Hughie has to really load up to generate any power, and that leaves him vulnerable to getting tagged. Hughie isn’t like Deontay Wilder, who can generate massive punching power even when standing perfectly straight up and throwing an arm punch. Deontay doesn’t need to load up completely to knock a guy out.
Hughie should be able to beat Aguilera without any problems. I have my doubts whether Hughie will be able to knock Aguilera out though. The 29-year-old New Yorker seems to have a pretty good chin. The last time Aguilera was stopped was in 2011, when he was stopped in the 3rd round by former world title challenger Chris Arreola. Since then, Aguilera has been able to go the distance with guys like Adamek, Breazeale and Washington. Those guys all appear to be better punchers than young Hughie. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hughie tries like crazy to KO Aguilera though. It would be a big feather in Hughie’s cap if he were able to KO a guy that those fighters couldn’t.
Hughie is supposedly working on his punching power with strength training. I’m not sure how that’s going. I would be surprised if Hughie has developed any additional punching power. By his age, a fighter normally has his power in place and it doesn’t change much. As such, I don’t think Hughie will ever be a puncher. He might be able to load up some muscles on his frame to gain some weight, but I don’t think that’s going to translate to more power.
Look Anthony Joshua. He doesn’t appear to be any more powerful than he was when he was fighting at 220 despite the fact that he’s packed on 25 to 30 pounds in a short period of time with weight lifting. If anything, Joshua doesn’t seem to be as good of a puncher now that he’s put on a ll that weight. Strength training doesn’t always equate to a fighter becoming more powerful. They might be able to lift more weights after getting stronger, but their power doesn’t seem to change.
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