Shane McPhilbin vs. Hughie Fury a possibility

By Boxing News - 07/29/2013 - Comments

fury5656By Scott Gilfoid: Heavyweight prospect Hughie Fury (8-0, 5 KO’s) could be facing former British cruiserweight champion Shane McPhilbin (8-7-1, 5 KO’s) next, according to Boxing roundup. McPhilbin, 27, has lost five out of his last six fights in the past year and his career seems to be stuck in quicksand ever since he missed out on a 1st round knockout of Enzo Maccarinelli in the infamous fight where the 1st round ended 47 seconds early with Maccarinelli badly hurt.

I don’t believe for a second that Hughie would be fighting a dangerous puncher like McPhilbin at this point in his career. It’s a fight that I could see someone like Deontay Wilder taking when he was 8-0, but I don’t see Hughie taking this fight because Hughie doesn’t have the kind of power that Deontay has going for him.

You have to possess some defensive skills and/or big time power if you’re going to be in the ring with McPhilbin, and I don’t Hughie having either of those qualities. As such, I see Hughie’s team steering him around McPhilbin and looking for another fighter without power and with a dreadful losing record.

Here are the records for Hughie’s last 5 opponents: 4-26, 0-4, 10-14, 7-40, 19-20 and 4-28. That’s just terrible to behold. Now for Hughie to go from those cats to someone with an 8-7 record like McPhilbin, it’s the equivalent of Hughie scaling Mount Everest with a blindfold on. It’s way too big of a jump up in competition for Hughie.

Now, if Hughie had Deontay-like power, then by all means I think McPhilbin would be the perfect opponent for him to hone his skills and show off his stuff. But if you throw Hughie in with a guy like that now without defense or power, I see it ending badly for Hughie with him getting knocked cold.

I see this as the old bait and switch. McPhilbin’s name gets mentioned by team Fury, and then a fighter with a 7-40 record is trotted out for Hughie to fight in his next bout. Is this a good thing for Hughie to be fighting those guys? Heck no, but that’s the way it is with matchmaking nowadays with some promoters.

All I can say is if Hughie really believes that he’s going to be breaking Mike Tyson’s record as the youngest heavyweight champion ever, then he’s going to have to step it up against a heck of a lot better fighters than McPhilbin, and he’s going to have to start facing these guys immediately because Hughie is still facing fodder opposition at this point.



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