By Jim Dower: Top Rank Boxing promotions are looking to acquire the U.S broadcast rights to televise the October 27 fight between heavyweights Kubrat Pulev (25-1, 13 KOs) and Hughie Fury )21-1, 1 KOs).
The two heavyweights will be facing each other in an IBF heavyweight title eliminator in Sofia, Bulgaria. The winner of the contest will be the mandatory challenger to IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. If Top Rank is successful in acquiring the broadcast rights from Epic Sports & Entertainment, who won the purse bid for the fight, then they’ll be streaming it live on ESPN+ the 27th of October, according to Dan Rafael. Pulev, 37, will be fighting at home to earn the mandatory spot.
It’s unclear how much fan interest there is in the United States the Pulev vs. Hughie Fury fight. Certainly for hardcore boxing fans in the States that already are subscribed to ESPN+, they might have some interest in watching the fight. But the fight isn’t likely going to get fans to want to subscribe to ESPN+ just so they can watch this match. It would be better off for Top Rank to put this fight on regular ESPN because boxing fans aren’t going to want to pay to see a fight like this.
The 6’4 ½” Pulev will likely have too much boxing skills for Hughie to deal with. Pulev is a very good fighter technically. His only loss of his career came against former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko in losing a 5th round knockout in November 2014. Wladimir had too much punching power and hand speed for Pulev to deal with. Pulev made a mistake of trying to punch with Wladimir early on in the fight, and this resulted in him getting knocked down multiple times. Wladimir finally finished Pulev off with a monstrous left hook to the head in round 5. Since that fight, Pulev has won his last five fights.
Pulev was previously the IBF mandatory for Joshua in October 2017, but he suffered a shoulder injury a week before the fight and had to pull out. Pulev was then replaced by Carlos Takam.
The 23-year-old Hughie lost to former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Joseph Parker by a 12 round majority decision on September 23 last year. Hughie, 6’6”, failed to capitalize on the opportunity to fight for the WBO title by electing to move around the ring and hold at any chance he could get.
It proved to be a wasted opportunity for Hughie, because he might have had a chance of winning the fight if he stood his ground and let his hands go. During the times that Hughie did stand and fight, he was able to land well. The problem was he wasn’t confident enough to punch with Parker, which caused him to lose the fight by default. Two of the judges scored it for Parker by the scores 118-110, 118-110 and the third had it a draw at 114-114. That judge, Rocky Young from the United States, was very generous to Hughie in scoring the contest a 12 round draw instead of a lopsided 12 round decision win for Parker.