By Tim Royner: Hughie Fury (24-3, 14 KOs) showed a different look in fighting with a lot of aggression and stopping Pavel Sour (11-3, 6 KOs) in the third round of a scheduled 10 round fight on Saturday night at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
Fury, 25, knocked Sour down with a chopping right to the side of his head in the third round to get a stoppage. The referee Steve Gray then halted the contest. Sour was also knocked down with a right hand from Hugue late in round 2. Sour didn’t recover from knockdown, and he was easy prey for Hughie at the start of the third round.
It was refreshing to see Hughie go all out looking for a KO tonight. Even his cousin Tyson Fury has never fought as aggressively as we saw with Hughie tonight. Hughie was fighting the way Lennox Lewis used to in launching long right-hand bombs.
The main difference between obviously is the power and the superior accuracy Lewis had on his shots. Hughie was missing too often tonight as if he had poor eyesight. But when Hughie finally did land his right, he had Sour down on both occasions. This is how Hughie is going to need to continue to fight if he wants to turn his career around because it’s not working for him to be a finesse level fighter.
Hughie more aggressive than usual
Before the knockdowns, the fight looked to be competitive with both guys scoring shots. The 6’6″ Hughie was clearly loading up on his right hands, and looking to hurt Sour, but he was missing a lot. At the time, the aggressive style of Hughie left him open for some nice shots from the 37-year-old Sour. Hughie was nailed by some hard shots from the Czech Republic fighter.
This new offensive-minded approach by Fury is perhaps a knee-jerk reaction from all the criticism that he’s received from boxing fans for a safety-first fighting style that he used in his losses to Joseph Parker, Alexander Povetkin, and Kubrat Pulev. Those fights showed that Fury’s defensive style of fighting wasn’t going to work for him against the upper-level heavyweights.
While Hughie did let his hands go more in this fight, his punching power, hand speed and accuracy didn’t look extraordinary. Moreover, the shots that Pavel was hitting Hughie with would have been potential knockout blows if they were thrown by a more powerful heavyweight.
Its nice Fury is fighting with a greater sense of urgency, but it might not work for him against quality heavyweights in the division. Tonight, Fury was like a fish out of water, fighting with a style that he isn’t suited for.
Eddie Hearn: Hughie can win world titles
“2020 is an important year,” said Fury’s promoter Eddie Hearn to Sky Sports News. “I believe he can challenge for, and win world titles. The Povetkin fight was ballsy but maybe not right. He is super young with a great team and there is plenty left in Hughie. On to a big fight in the summer.”
Hughie’s promoter Hearn was wearing his promotional hat tonight in projecting a world title for him, but it’s unlikely to happen. None of the world champions are going to throw Hughie a bone at this point. Hearn needs to be careful in who he matches Hughie up with for the summer because if he puts him in a “BIG fight,” as he says, he’ll likely lose.
It would be nice to see Hughie face someone like Filip Hrgovic, Michael Hunter and Daniel Dubois. Those are guys that Hughie should be competing with to earn a title shot rather than having it given to him like before.
Hughie needs to improve before fighting for world title
He already fought for a world title in 2017 in losing to former WBO champion Joseph Parker by a one-sided 12 round decision. Since then, Hughie has lost twice in defeats to Kubrat Pulev and Alexander Povetkin. Tonight’ fight for Hughie was against a 2nd tier level heavyweight in Sour, so he’s not going to get pushed up the rankings from this win.
It’s going to be difficult for Hughie Fury to win any world titles at this unless he can improve on his punching power, as well on defense. Hughie has excellent boxing skills, but there are so many other fighters in the division that offer more. If Hughie had the height and reach of his cousin Tyson Fury, that would help, but he’s only 6’6″. That’s not tall enough for Hughie to have an advantage of the likes of Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua.
Other boxing results on tonight’s card:
Zach Parker TKO 11 Rohan Murdock
Anthony Fowler TKO 1 Theophilus Tetteh
Jack Cullen TKO 2 Tomas Andres Reynoso
Robbie Davies Jnr PTS 8 Damian Leonardo Yapur
Reshat Mati TKO 2 Abdallah Luanja
Dalton Smith TKO 4 Benson Nyilawila
Blane Hyland PTS 4 Joel Sanchez
Aqib Fiaz PTS 4 Dean Jones
Ibrahim Nadim PTS 4 Stefan Nicolae
Bradley Rea PTS 4 Pavol Garaj