Hughie Fury battles Pavel Sour on Nov.30 in Monte Carlo

Image: Hughie Fury battles Pavel Sour on Nov.30 in Monte Carlo
By Boxing News - 11/08/2019 - Comments

By Kenneth Friedman: Former heavyweight world title challenger Hughie Fury (23-3, 13 KOs) is fighting later this month against Pavel Sour (11-2, 6 KOs) on November 30 at the Casino de Monte Carlo Salle in Medecin, Monte Carlo. This is a Matchroom Boxing promoted card.

This is a rebuilding fight for the 24-year-old Fury. He lost his last fight to former WBA champion Alexander Povetkin last August, and he needs a nice confidence booster. However, there’s no guarantee that a win for Hughie over Sour will change anything. Hughie’s lack of punching power and his poor conditioning will remain constants.

Hughie gave the 40-year-old Povetkin a run for his money in that fight, but wound losing by a 12 round unanimous decision. The scores were 117-111, 117-111 and 117-111.

Hughie faded down the stretch

Like in Hughie’s previous two career defeats, he didn’t have the engine to fight as hard as he needed to down the stretch against Povetkin. Hughie looks good for the first six rounds, but then he gasses and gets outworked. Povetkin was there to be beat on the night, but the 6’6″ Hughie looked too tired to do the job. Hughie fought like a guy a lot older than 24 years against the Russian.

At this point, it’s debatable whether Fury’s training team will be able to make improvements in his conditioning. He’s had conditioning problems since 2015, and it doesn’t look like he’s getting better in this area.

Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn signed Hughie thinking he could put him in some big fights, but it’s not looking good right now. With 2 defeats in his last 4 fights, Hughie’s career in on shaky ground. Hearn had to have suspected that Hughie’s stamina problems would persist when he signed him, but perhaps he thought there was a chance he could make inroads in this area.

Sour a tough test for Hughie

The 37-year-old Sour is better fighter than his record would have one believe, and this could be a tough out for Hughie. Sour fought well in losing a 10 round decision to unbeaten American Jermaine Franklin (20-0, 13 KOs) on October 5. Although Sour lost by a wide decision, he landed a lot of good shots in the fight.

The risk involved with Hughie fighting a lower level fighter like Sour is that if he struggles or loses, then he’ll look bad. Hearn could have matched Hughie against David Price, Nate Gorman, Dereck Chisora or Dave Allen. One of those guys would have been ideal for Hughie. At least if Hughie lost to those fighters, he wouldn’t take as much criticism.

Hughie’s spoiling is a BIG problem

All the holding that Fury tends to do in his fights is off-putting, and it makes it hard for him to win when he steps it up a level. In Hughie’s losses to Joseph Parker, Kubrat Pulev and Povetkin, he held constantly. Those were winnable fights for Hughie if he’d let his hands go, but he couldn’t do it. He was too focused on holding and surviving.

Also on the November 30 Matchroom card are the following fights:

  • Alexander Besputin vs. Radzhab Butaev
  • Joe Cordina vs. Enrique Tinoco
  • Cecilia Braekhus vs. Victoria Noelia Bustos
  • Sergey Kuzmin vs. Zhilei Zhang
  • Nayan Deslion vs. TBA
  • Victoire Piteau vs. Raphaelle Lachaume