By Scott Gilfoid: It looks like #14 WBO contender Razvan Cojanu (14-2, 9 KOs) will be the replacement for WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (22-0, 18 KOs)to defend his title against on May 6 as a substitute for the ailing Hughie Fury at the Spark Arena in Auckland, New Zealand. The 6’7 ½” is said to be a harder puncher than the 6’6” Hughie. In looking at a couple of the 30-year-old Cojanu’s past fights on Youtube, he looks a lot more powerful than the young 22-year-old Hughie. Cojanu is probably a better fighter than Hughie despite having 2 losses on his record.
Cojanu also looks very fragile-chinned as well. He was knocked out recently in 2 rounds by Donovan Dennis in 2 rounds in April 2015. Dennis nailed Cojanu with a left to the head that put him down flat on his face for the KO in the 2nd round of their fight 2 years ago.
Cojanu has since won his last 3 fights against weak opposition. It’s unclear why the World Boxing Organization has Cojanu ranked in their top 15, because with 2 losses in 16 fights as a pro, you would think that would be enough to eliminate Cojanu from the WBO’s top 15 rankings. None of the other sanctioning bodies has the Romanian Cojanu ranked in their top 15 ratings. The WBO obviously has their reasons for rating Cojanu at No.14.
“We are excited, we think we have got someone that is at least as good as Hughie Fury and certainly has more power than Hughie Fury,” said Parker’s promoter David Higgins of Duco Events to stuff.co.nz. “He’s a very tough contender, so it’s a proper challenge. It’s looking promising … tomorrow we are planning a big announcement.”
There’s no doubt about it that Cojanu is a harder puncher than young Hughie. But to be honest, you could probably say the same thing about any of the heavyweight contenders in the top 15 in the division. I’m talking about ALL of 4 of the sanctioning bodies’ top contenders. Hughie appears to be the weakest puncher out of all the guys in the top 15 of what I’ve seen.
Cojanu definitely can punch. His chin is his weakness, which probably is the reason why he’s being picked out for Parker. But you cannot blame Parker’s management for selecting a fighter like Cojanu for him to defend his WBO title against because it was unexpected for Hughie to pull out of the fight with a back injury. Parker’s management has some doubts about whether the injury is legitimate or not.
“It was they who were trying to move the fight, even after preparations were already underway. The date had been set but they said they had spent too much money on the fight and that it wouldn’t work in New Zealand,” Hughie’s trainer/father Peter Fury said to the mirror.co.uk
Parker’s promoter David Higgins of Duco Events said this to stuff.co.nz about Peter Fury’s comments:
“From day one the Furys did not want to come to New Zealand, they just refused to come here,” said Higgins. ”That’s why we went to purse bid to force it. We won the purse bid and booked the fight for New Zealand. The fight was going to happen on May 6. Behind the scenes it was them trying to convince us to move it to England.”
Whatever the case, Hughie won’t be fighting for a world title against Parker on May 6. The good news is that Parker has a decent near bottom ranked fringe contender in little known Razvan Cojanu for him to fight. This is a good non-risky fight for Parker. He should be able to destroy Cojanu in 1 or 2 rounds depending on how hard he goes after him. Cojanu doesn’t have great boxing skills. He’s kind of slow on his feet and his hand speed is nothing special. You know what you’re going to get with Cojanu. He’s going to be coming out looking to take Parker’s head off with every punch he throws. If Cojanu lands something big, he could knock Parker out in this fight. The guy has world class power.
2012 U.S Olympian Dominic Breazeale (18-1, 16 KOs) was the other heavyweight that was in the running for the Parker fight. There are rumors that Breaxeale wanted too much money. It’s unclear if that’s the case. I think Breazeale would have been a very risky fight for the 6’4” Parker to take on just 2 weeks’ notice. Breazeale has improved a lot since his 7th round knockout loss to Anthony Joshua in June of 2016.
In Breazeale’s last fight, he stopped Izuaghe Ugonoh in the 5th round on February 25, 2017. It was one of the most exciting fights this year thus far. Ugonoh was knocked down in round 3 and 5. Breazeale was down once in round 4. The difference between how Breazeale fought against Ugonah and Joshua is like night and day. Breazeale showed a lot of improvement in fighting with more aggression and throwing a lot more punches. If Breazeale had fought this way against Joshua, he might have beaten him.
Parker and Hughie could still wind up fighting each other later this year unless Parker fights a unification fight. Hopefully, Hughie doesn’t get injured again. He’s still young now at 22, but if he stays out of the ring too much longer, he could wind up having missed too much time to ever get back to the level he was at previously. To be honest, Hughie looked flawed and not world level in his last 2 fights in my view. I saw a lot of clinching by Hughie, and a ton of running around the ring in his fights against Fred Kassi and Dominick Guinn.
The WBO has Hughie ranked No.1 with their organization. For the life of me, I don’t understand why the WBO has Hughie ranked so high. He hasn’t beaten any good contenders. Actually, Hughie hasn’t beaten any contenders at the world level. He’s fought a lot of B and C-level opponents, and not shined against them. I don’t rate Hughie as a contender based off his wins and how he’s looked since he turned pro in 2013. Hughie is related to Tyson Fury. Hopefully, Hughie doesn’t lose his rankings because of his ailments.