By Trevor McIntyre: Hughie Fury (20-1, 10 KOs) won’t be facing unbeaten prospect Joe Joyce (4-0, 4 KOs) next if he beats British heavyweight champion Sam Sexton (24-3, 9 KOs) this Saturday night on May 12 at the Bolton Whites Hotel in Bolton, UK.
According to Hughie’s trainer/father Peter Fury, they don’t fancy a fight against the 6’6” Joyce. They have world title aspirations. Peter says Hughie is going after another world title fight after losing former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker eight months ago by a 12 round majority decision on September 23 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.
“Joyce is a very good talent,” Peter Fury said to skysports.com. “We rate him but it’s not a fight we’re interested in. Hughie is six years as a professional, and has climbed the ladder the hard way. Joyce will have to do the same. We’re looking beyond Joyce. We’re looking at getting Hughie into world contention,” Peter said.
This looks like a duck job on the part of Peter Fury in choosing not to let Hughie fight Joyce. If Hughie were to beat Joyce, it would gain him a lot of attention and that would help him get the high ranking that he’s striving for.
It’s not all that surprising that Hughie and Peter Fury want no part of Joyce. He’s powerful, he throws a lot of punches, he’s big, and his stamina is top level. Joyce has a better engine than Hughie, who gassed out against journeyman Fred Kassi in the 6th round in their fight in April 2016. Hughie looked exhausted before the fight was suddenly stopped after he suffered a cut above his left eye from a head-butt in round 7. Hughie has fought only once since then in losing to Parker in 2017. Hughie didn’t look any better against Parker than he did in the Kassi fight. The difference was that Hughie ran around the ring for 12 rounds, and didn’t let Parker get to him. If Hughie had stood and fought Parker for the entire fight, he would have probably gassed out badly and been stopped.
It was always going to be a long shot for Joyce to get a fight against Hughie Fury. Joyce needs to be aiming higher than Hughie and Sexton at his age. At 32, Joyce must push for fights against top level heavyweights for him to get pushed up the heavyweight rankings rapidly before he gets too old to win a world title. Joyce is not with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing, so that probably means he won’t be given a world title shot against IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua until he becomes the mandatory challenger to him. For Joyce to become mandatory, he needs to be beating contenders at the world level. Hughie and Sexton are lower level heavyweights at the moment. Beating them is not going to get Joyce pushed up high in the rankings.
This week, Joyce called out unbeaten contender Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller (21-0-1, 18 KOs) on social media for a fight. That’s the type of fight that Joyce needs to get moved up quickly in the rankings. It’s still unlikely that Miller will fight him, because he’s going to be getting a title shot against Joshua very soon. It’s good that Joyce is targeting contenders like Miller.
“Big Baby Miller, I know you’re being avoided. So am I,” Joyce said on his Twitter in calling out the 29-year-old Miller on Tuesday. ”I’ll come to your backyard in Brooklyn. I am just a 4-0 novice. Big Juggernaut vs. Big Baby. Let’s dance.”
Miller hasn’t responded to being called out by Joyce, and it’s quite possible that he never will. Miller, 29, is on the verge of getting life-changing money for a fight against Joshua, and he’s not going to risk it by fighting someone that could possibly beat him badly. Miller’s last two fights against Johann Duhaupas and Mariusz Wach have shown that he’s got some problems with his game that will need to be ironed out if he’s to have a chance against Joshua. Miller would have a lot of problems with Joyce’s size, power and work rate if he agreed to a fight with him.
Peter is calling Hughie ”an uncrowned world champion,” according to skysports.com, and he plans on getting him a No.1 ranking with one of the sanctioning bodies so that he can become a mandatory challenger for one of the champions. It could take a long time for Hughie to accomplish that goal, since he’s not ranked in the top 15 at this time with any of the 4 sanctioning bodies in the heavyweight division.
Hughie is still young at 23-years-old, so he has plenty of time to eventually get ranked. Hughie will probably need to fight better opposition than Sexton though for him to achieve a No.1 ranking. Fighting on the British level is something that Hughie should have been passed a long time ago. Going backwards with his career is a regressive move on his part and a sign that all is not well. One likely reason why Hughie is no longer rated in the top 15 by the sanctioning bodies is how bad he looked against Joseph Parker. Hughie was completely negative the entire fight with Parker, running and holding for 12 rounds. Two of the judges scored the fight 118-110 [10 rounds to 2] in Parker’s favor. Those were accurate scores.
“He definitely belongs in the top five in the world and, on Saturday, he’ll show why,” Peter said about Hughie.
You can argue that Hughie is more of a bottom 10 heavyweight than a top 5 at this time. Here are the heavyweights that I consider to be the best:
1. Anthony Joshua
2. Deontay Wilder
3. Alexander Povetkin
4. Luis Ortiz
5. Dillian Whyte
6. Joseph Parker
7. Jarrell Miller
8. Kubrat Pulev
9. Dominic Breazeale
10. Carlos Takam
11. Bryant Jennings
12. Adam Kownacki
13. Joe Joyce
14. Agit Kabayel
15. Johann Duhaupas
16. Dereck Chisora
17. Charles Martin
18. Christian Hammer
19. Bermane Stiverne
20. Manuel Charr
As far as Hughie goes, his performance against Parker showed that he doesn’t rate to be ranked in the top 15 at this time. If Hughie can keep improving in the future, he’ll possibly get to world class level and deserve to be there, but right now I don’t think he’s ready for the top guys. 4-fight novice Joe Joyce beats Hughie with ease in my opinion.