By Scott Gilfoid: Underdog Hughie Fury (20-0, 10 KOs) says he sees fear in WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (23-0, 18 KOs) before their fight tonight at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England.
Hughie says he’s spotted fear in the eyes of the 25-year-old Parker, and he plans on taking advantage of that by knocking him out. According to Hughie, Parker is just coming over to Manchester for a payday and nothing else.
Hughie, 234 lbs., will be coming into the fight tonight 11 pounds lighter than the 245 lb. Parker and he’s considerably weaker when it comes to punching power. If Hughie is going to win this fight, he’s going to need to try and have it go the distance.
“It’s business now,” said Hughie Fury about his fight tonight against Parker. “I’ve got my game face on now. It’s time to rock and roll. He’s scared deep down inside. I can see it. I believe I’m going to knock him out. I truly believe it,” said Hughie.
Hughie looked awful in his last fight against journeyman Fred Kassi on April 22 last year. The fight was stopped in round 7 after Hughie suffered a cut over his left eye from a clash of head. In looking back at that fight, Hughie was completely exhausted when he rammed heads with Kassi. It looked to me like Hughie wanted out of the fight, as Kassi was starting to land tremendous shots.
As hard as Kassi was hitting Hughie, I doubt that he would have lasted more than a round or 2 more before he tasted the canvas for a knockout. The cut saved Hughie from a knockout loss in my opinion. Whether Hughie intentionally rammed his face into the crown of Kassi’s head intentionally or not, we’ll never know for sure. It just looked very suspicious to me the way that Hughie came forward face first when things were looking bleak for him in round 7. If Hughie gasses out tonight in a similar manner against Parker, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see him turn into a Billy Goat again and start ramming his head into Parker to get a stoppage.
It’s been 2 years since Hughie scored a knockout over anybody, and that was against journeyman Larry Olubamiwo. Hughie has never knocked out anybody you can call a good fighter. But to honest, Hughie has fought only one semi-decent opponent in his entire 4-year pro career and that was Andriy Rudenko in 2015 in winning a boring 10 round unanimous decision. Hughie used running and holding to win that fight. I thought Hughie should have had points taken off for all the holding he did in the fight, as it impeded Rudenko’s ability to throw punches.
Clinching should only be allowed under certain cases like when a fighter is hurt and needs to clear his head. Hughie was clinching as a tactic. He was gaming the system by throwing a punch at Rudenko, and then falling forward into a clinch. It was like that all night long. The Monte Carlo crowd was booing the nonstop clinching from Hughie in that fight, which wasn’t surprising because it was so constant. Hughie was like an octopus with the way he was literally all over Rudenko.
The boxing fans wanted to see some action, not some guy grabbing all night long for survival. I’m hoping we don’t see Hughie resort to clinching tonight, because it’ll make the fight ugly against Parker. The referee needs to do his job if Hughie decides he wants to game the system by clinching 10+ times per round. Unfortunately, I doubt the referee assigned to the fight, Marcus McDonnell, will step in and give the hook to Hughie by disqualifying him if he doesn’t stop holding.
Parker doesn’t look scared to me. He looks more amused by Hughie than anything. Hughie doesn’t have much power to frighten Parker. Hughie is a lighter hitter, who likes to tap and get away as fast as he can after landing. It’s not entertaining to be watch, to be honest.
These are the flaws Hughie brings in tonight’s match against the 6’4” Parker:
• No punching power
• Poor stamina
• Inactivity
• Lack of experience
• Weak jab
• Nonexistent defense
• Tendency to lose his head when crowd cheers him
• Zero Ring IQ
• Leaves head open when throwing to the body
Hughie, 23, is the underdog in the fight with the odds-makers. Parker is the favorite by the line -150 to Hughie’s +130. You can argue that Parker should be a heck of a lot bigger favorite over Hughie than that, but with the fight being staged in the UK, it gives the 6’6” Hughie a big advantage if the fight goes to the scorecards.
We could see a nice controversial decision like we did with the Gennady “GGG” Golovkin vs. Saul Canelo Alvarez fight last Saturday night. I’m hoping we don’t see a robbery, but this is boxing. That kind of thing happens all the time.
”We’ll see who stands up,” said Hughie. ”I want to take him down. I’m looking forward to it. I can’t wait now.”
Hughie is just flapping his gums right now about him knocking out Parker. There’s little to no chance of Hughie knocking out Parker. Heck, Hughie has less punching power than former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who was well-known for his slapping ability. Tyson was a glorified slapper during his career. It’s obviously over with. I can’t see Tyson Fury ever burning off enough blubber to return to the ring. But Hughie is even weaker than him when it comes to power. The only way I see Hughie getting a stoppage victory is if Parker suffers a debilitating injury, and he can’t continue fighting.
It would have to be something really bad like a shoulder, knee, arm or Achilles tendon injury for Parker to bow out of the fight without staying in the fight. Outside of an injury, Hughie has no chance of getting a knockout tonight in my view. He doesn’t hit hard enough, and he fights like he’d afraid to throw power shots in his fights.
“I truly believe he doesn’t believe he can win,” said Hughie in talking about the 25-year-old Parker. ”He’s just coming over for the payday. “
Well, I think Parker is coming over to the UK for the payday, but he obviously intends on winning comfortably tonight. The reason why the Parker vs. Hughie fight is taking place in Manchester, England rather than New Zealand is because that’s where the green stuff is at. There’s arguably more money to be made for Parker I the UK than there is if the fight were to be staged in New Zealand.
Hughie ha got a lot of UK boxing fans that are excited about seeing the fight tonight, so they’ll have a ton of fans that will be showing up to see the fight live at the Manchester Arena. It doesn’t mean that Parker is coming over for just the pay day and doesn’t intend n winning the fight. Parker obviously believes that he’s going to win. He just wants to make sure that when he beat sure, he gets as much money as possible in the process. That’s just the way it is.
”I believe we’re going to see Joseph Parker on his [expletive],” said Hughie in predicting a knockout win over the New Zealand fighter. ”I truly believe I’m going to knock him out.”
I hope for Hughie’s sake that he doesn’t get knocked out while trying to land a big shot. If Hughie is going to score a knockout tonight, he’s going to need to do it in the first 5 rounds, because after that point in the fight, he tends to gas out. Hughie blames his stamina problems on his skin condition, but I don’t believe that for a second. Hughie gasses out because he’s a big guy that doesn’t have the condition to fight hard for a full 12 rounds. I don’t see him ever having the condition to fight a hard 12 round fight without him getting tired and getting stopped.