By Scott Gilfoid: Hughie Fury (20-0, 10 KOs) still has an outside chance of getting picked for IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua’s next fight in November, but it’s probably not a good chance judging by the comments from Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn. He has a number of other options and he’s not quite sure whether to match Joshua against Hughie at this time. Hearn says he’s tried to match Joshua against Hughie in the past but there wasn’t interest on his side at the time.
“We are talking to a few possible opponents about a November fight for AJ and as Hughie is in the IBF top 15, I’m happy to put him in the mix,” said Hearn to skysports.com. “As I understand it, Hughie has a UKAD hearing in November, so I’m not sure how that will affect things.”
That doesn’t sound good for the 6’6” Hughie. I think it’s for the better than the young 21-year-old Hughie not fight Joshua right now because I see the fight as the worst kind of massacre. Based on how Hughie looked in his last fight against journeyman Fred Kassi last April, I don’t think he’s ready for a fight against Joshua now or likely ever. I don’t see the talent there for the weak-punching Hughie for him to get past the 1st round against Joshua.
It would be sad for the paying boxing fans that purchase the Joshua vs. Hughie fight on Sky Box Office to see Hughie obliterated in round one. Hearn needs to realize that act as the quality control guy to make sure that Joshua is facing only tested heavyweights with talent, not untested youngsters that are coming off of a very, very shaky performance against Kassi. If you look at the Hughie
Hearn has several other heavyweight contenders – Kubrat Pulev, Bermane Stiverne and Joseph Parker that he’s considering for Joshua’s next fight in November. Parker, 24, is Joshua’s No.1 IBF mandatory challenger, but he’s also seen as the most dangerous of those three fighters. As such, I don’t see Hearn picking him for Joshua because it’s too much of a 50-50 fight. The 6’4 ½” Pulev is a tough out as well, so I don’t see him getting the fight either.
Pulev has an excellent jab and some decent pop in his punches. I those two qualities eliminates him from contention. The only guy left is the smallish, 6’2” Stiverne, who has fought only once since he was totally dominated by Deontay Wilder last year in losing a 12 round unanimous decision in January 2015. Matchroom Sport chairman Barry Hearn is reportedly interested in having Joshua fight Stiverne next. To me, that pretty much seals the deal. I doubt that Eddie will go against his father’s wishes by picking someone else like Pulev or Parker for the fight against Joshua.
As for young Hughie, he supposedly has gotten his skin condition under control, which his father/trainer Peter Fury feels has sapped 30-40 percent from his game. It’s swell that Peter says that Hughie has been impacted by his skin condition, but without him getting inside the ring to prove that he’s now a different fighter, you have to believe that he’ll be the same fighter that ran out of gas after six rounds against Kassi.
You also have to believe that Hughie will still be the same light hitting heavyweight that he was before. If Peter really believes that Hughie is now fighting at his truest potential, then he needs to throw him in the ring with the likes of Pulev, Stiverne, Parker or Luis Ortiz. I’m pretty sure that one of those guys wouldn’t mind facing Hughie for a nice 10 round fight. I mean, I can’t see Hughie beating any of them, but at least we’d finally get a chance to see what Hughie can do now that he’s got his skin condition under control and is fighting at full strength.
I think Hughie is going to be a finesse type heavyweight just like Tyson Fury, but obviously not as effective as him because he’s not as tall as the 6’9” Fury. Hughie likes to run around the ring, throwing jabs, pot shots and then scurrying to the safety of the outside to keep from getting hit. It’s painfully boring to watch, I must admit. All that running and holding from Hughie is so, so off putting.