By Tim Royner: Hughie Fury says he wants to be the challenger that faces Anthony Joshua on April 13 at Wembley Stadium, provided he defeats Kubrat Pulev in their International Boxing Federation heavyweight world title eliminator next month on October 27 at the Arena Ameec in Sofia, Bulgaria.
That’s a big IF that the 24-year-old former heavyweight world title challenger Fury (21-1, 11 KOs) will be able to get passed Pulev (25-1, 13 KOs), as he doesn’t possess the punching power, offensive skills or the home country advantage to win the fight against the tough 6’4 ½” Bulgarian.
Pulev, 37, has both the amateur and pro experience advantage over the young 6’6” Hughie, and he’ll be fighting at home on October 27, which will make things even tougher for the visiting fighter.
“That’s the fight I’m dying to get, and hopefully get through this fight, and then a fight with me and him. I’m in a final eliminator and would be in mandatory position,” Hughie said to skysports.com. ”He hasn’t got an opponent in April, so I would definitely jump at that one.”
I think for a lot of the boxing public, Hughie is not someone that they’re eager to see standing across from Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) on April 13 at Wembley Stadium. If Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn were to pick out Hughie for his fight in the first quarter of next year, he’ll disappoint a lot of fans for sure. In some ways, Hearn has a tin ear to what the fans want to see, but he’s in tune enough to know that the fans wouldn’t stand for watching Joshua fight young Hughie on April 13 at Wembley Stadium. Joshua vs. Hughie would be a good fight to stick in a small arena with a few thousand seats, and squeezed in by AJ in a third fight in 2019 or 2020. It’s not a good fight for Joshua to take if he’s only going to fight twice in 2019 or 2020. This is all conjecture at his point. Hughie still needs to get past Pulev, and doesn’t look good for him in that fight.
It doesn’t matter that Hughie’s fight with former heavyweight world title challenger Pulev is an IBF title eliminator, the sanctioning body isn’t going to likely order Joshua to defend against the Pulev-Fury winner until 2020. They’re not going to order Joshua to face the winner of that fight by April 13. If Hughie and Pulev are lucky, the IBF might order Joshua to defend against the winner in the second half of 2019, but that’s stretching it a bit. Joshua for sure isn’t going to give his promoter Eddie Hearn his marching orders to sign up young Hughie as his opponent for his April 13 fight a Wembley Stadium in London, England. The reason why he won’t is simple.
Hughie lacks the crowd-pleasing style that Hearn and Joshua will need to make to entertain the huge amount of boxing fans that will be filling Wembley Stadium on the 13th of April. Hughie is more of a runner and slapper than a brawler, and that style is not going to work for Joshua for him to entertain the fans that will be watching his April 13 fight live at Wembley Stadium and on Sky Sports Box Office and DAZN.
The last time Hughie had a chance to fight for a world title against former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Joseph Parker, he ran and hugged for 12 rounds in losing a 12 round majority decision last year in September 2017 in Manchester, UK. Hughie fought like he was just trying to survive the fight rather than win it. Afterwards, Hughie embarrassed himself by complaining about how he should have been given the victory. It looked bad to hear Hughie unable to come to terms with his loss. You have to expect that if Hughie gets a shot to fight Joshua for his IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles, he’ll do exactly what he did against Parker in running around the ring stinking up the joint.
Unless Hughie knocks out Pulev, he’s likely going to go home a loser next month on October 27. That’s not to say Pulev will win on a robbery. He’s got more than enough talent to beat Hughie in a one-sided manner. Pulev’s jab and punching power are leagues better than Hughie’s weapons.