By Scott Gilfoid: In what could turn out to be an exercise in futility, the British Boxing Board of Control has reportedly ordered Dillian Whyte (16-1, 13 KOs) and unbeaten Hughie Fury (20-0, 10 KOs) to fight for the vacant British heavyweight title.
This is the belt that Anthony Joshua recently gave up. Joshua no longer needs the British strap now that he’s the IBF heavyweight champion after his win over Charles Martin. It’s unclear whether Hughie, 21, would agree to a risky fight like this, even though his father/trainer Peter Fury has been talking about how Hughie takes the fights that other fighters don’t take.
Dillian Whyte would be a very dangerous fight for young Hughie because he would need to take some big shots. Hughie looked terrible in his recent fight against high level journeyman Fred Kassi in winning a 7th round technical decision on April 30. Hughie was being worn down by Kassi in the 6th round when Hughie suffered a cut over his left eye.
The cut eventually caused the fight to be stopped with it going to the scorecards where Hughie won by a decision. Had the fight gone the full 12 round distance, Kassi would have had a good chance of winning by a stoppage.
Hughie is now scheduled to fight on the undercard of the Tyson Fury vs. Wladimir Klitschko rematch on July 9 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK. Hughie doesn’t have an opponent yet, but it’s likely not going to be anyone good given his cut. It’s not likely that Hughie’s cut will be healed by the time he takes the fight in July.
“The purse bids are due in June, to take place by the end of September,” said Robert Smith of the British Boxing Board of Control to skysports.com. “The purse bids are due on June 8, however, they have between now and June 8 to negotiate the private deal if they wish.”
The “if they wish” part is something that applies here because I don’t see Hughie wishing to take a fight against the dangerous Dillian Whyte. No way on earth do I see that fight happening. If Hughie or Whyte decide they won’t wish to fight for the vacant British heavyweight title, then unbeaten Dave Allen (9-0-1, 6 KOs) will step in and fight either Whyte or Hughie.
I can’t see Allen beating either of those guys to be honest. Allen got some attention recently in stopping journeyman Jason Gavern in the 4th round on March 26 on the undercard of the Kell Brook vs. Kevin Bizier mismatch.
Allen got people talking about him with the win over Gavern, but it’s no big deal that he beat a journeyman. I still see Allen as being hopelessly out of his league if he faces Hughie or Whyte.
Whyte is coming off of shoulder surgery on his left shoulder, but he’s expected to be able to fight on the Joshua vs. Dominic Breazeale card on June 25 at the O2 Arena in London, UK. Whyte will likely be taking a tune-up level opponent for his first fight back from the shoulder. It would be great to see Whyte fight Hughie on that card, but that obviously isn’t going to happen.
If a fight between Whyte and Hughie does take place in 2016, it’ll be later this year. Like I said, I don’t see Hughie being given the green light to fight Whyte because he’s too power, too advanced and just too good for him.