By William Lloyd: Hughie Fury is being angled for a world title shot in 2022, and his team is hoping to get a high-caliber opponent for a title eliminator.
Ranked #4 with the WBA, the former world title challenger Hughie (26-3, 15 KOs) needs a highly rated contender for him to get a shot at the winner of the Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk fight in 2022.
Hughie, 27, is coming off of back-to-back impressive wins over Christian Hammer in October 2021 and Mariusz Wach in December 2020.
To keep the momentum going, Hughie needs a highly ranked contender that can propel him into a mandatory title spot to get a shot at fighting Joshua or Usyk in 2022.
Hughie has won his last three fights since losing a 12 round unanimous decision to Alexander Povetkin in 2019. That was a tough loss for the 6’6″ Hughie, considering if he’d beaten the former WBA heavyweight champion Povetkin, he would have gotten a world title shot against Joshua.
Povetkin has too much experience for Hughie in that fight, and he wasn’t ready for that level of opponent yet.
“That’s exactly what we’re looking at. We’ll definitely get somebody of high caliber,” said Hughie’s dad, Peter Fury, to Sky Sports.
“We’re just sorting out opponents right now, and we’re busy with it.”
Hughie has two potential options to fight in #2 WBA Michael Hunter and #3 WBO, #4 IBF, and #5 WBC Joseph Parker. Hunter (20-1-1, 14 KOs) has already said he would be willing to fight Hughie next, and an excellent match to put the winner in the position to challenge for a world title.
Ideally, what Hughie and his dad Peter need is for the WBA to agree to make the fight with Hunter, a world title eliminator. That way, if Hughie wins, he’ll be locked in to challenge the Joshua-Usyk 2 winner in 2022 or 2023.
“If the people are interested, then let’s do it,” Hunter told Sky Sports.
“I’m at No two right now. I know [Daniel] Dubois is in front of me. If I had to fight Hughie Fury to make something happen, to stir up some stuff, I would easily do so.
“I would definitely step in there with no hesitation if it put me in the right position.”
Hunter would be a formidable opponent for Hughie to fight, and it’s unclear whether he could deal with his complex style.
Hughie’s recent fights against Hammer and Wach faced big slow guys, who lacked the talent to give him problems.
The 2012 U.S Olympian Hunter is different, as he puts his punches together and can overwhelm his opponents. We saw that in Hunter’s wins over Martin Bakole, Aleksander Ustinov, and Sergey Kuzmin.
In Hunter’s lone career defeat against Oleksandr Usyk in 2017, he gave the Ukrainian fighter huge problems with his work rate in the first half of the contest, and Usyk was forced to get on his bike in the second half of the fight to pull out the victory.
Hughie challenged former WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker for his title in September 2017 but was beaten by a 12 round majority decision.
It was a fight that Hughie could have won if he’d stood his ground and let his hands go instead of spending a good portion of the bout moving and clinching Parker to keep him from getting his shots off.