A Closer Look at the Joseph Parker Vs Hughie Fury Title Fight

By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

They are a family that divides opinion.

There are those who hanker after the return of one because the trajectory of the other is significantly less impressive.

The family represents a minority in the country that houses them and therefore we have issues with them that go way beyond the sport.

At the tail end of September little cousin Hughie Fury, 20-0, 10 KO’s, shall face the WBO champion, Joseph Parker, 23-0, 18 KO’s, in a postponed attempt at getting his hands on a world title. His bigger cousin, Tyson having given us headlines and the night of our lives when in 2015 he took the belts from around the waist of arguably one of the most dominant fighters of recent times – Wladimir Klitschko, is lying dormant and in limbo whilst Hughie carries the family pride on his very square shoulders.

Trained by his father, Peter, and supported by a community of travellers who shall be out in force come the 23rd of September in Manchester, Hughie shall try and restore some of the pride that has been lost through his cousin’s inaction over the last few months.

His task is simple, beat the one heavyweight that people believe that he has a chance of beating and keep that belt in Manchester at the end of the fight.

The likelihood of that happening is… well… there’s hope… let’s be positive about it…

The issue for most British fight fans is simple – who HAS Hughie fought? Well… in his 20 fights that is a simple question to answer; not many that would satisfy most boxing observers to allow him to take the challenger’s berth against the likes of Deontay Wilder or Anthony Joshua, but he seems quite a neat fit for Parker.

For Parker, it gets him out of his native Antipodean homeland in New Zealand, where he won the world title and gave his fans their night to remember. He has defended once though it was a late opponent and one he knew well – a sparring partner. The fight with Fury gives him a big enough payday that would allow him to gather some cash in his bank in a big fight that does not include any of the bigger beasts of the division but could set up and even bigger grossing fight for 2018.

It does not have to be a unification fight either as there are some tasty prospects in the UK and even Lucas Browne in an Australia/New Zealand package that would sell well in either country.

For Fury, this could be the night of HIS life or it could be the gateway to other opportunities. If he wins then he will defend against someone of a lesser value, probably in the UK.

If he loses he goes back down the pecking order and he could do with setting himself up against some of the bigger British names – Derrick Chisora, Dillian Whyte, David Haye or Tony Bellew. These would sell but his pedigree would be very damaged and the likelihood of him managing to convince one of them to climb into a ring with him would be minimal.

If he wins, they will all take tickets and call him out.

Messrs Chisora, Whyte and Bellew would have to wait as David Haye has already entered negotiations. They are firmly in the Parker camp as Parker’s camp have already spoken to Eddie Hearn and we can expect Whyte getting a shot first and then AJ hoovering up the belt afterwards.
But this speculation about what will or may happen after September is getting a little ahead of ourselves. Hughie is perhaps unfairly seen as the lesser of all those heavyweights.

His family though have not helped and his world title ambitions were highlighted by big cousin Tyson once claiming that Hughie would become the youngest every heavyweight world champion – better than Tyson – Mike that is. The problem was that he was not the same explosive presence as his cousin, nor was he the shadow of Mike.

It is further unfair because Hughie does have a pedigree.

He was the World Gold Medalist from the 2012 Youth Championships in the super heavyweight division and was the very first British boxer to do so – EVER. None of his contemporaries, nor those before him had managed that.

Just a year later he turned professional when he was just 18 years old – hence the potential boast that he would one day become the youngest every world champion. He is only 22 now.

Unusually he made his debut in Montreal, Canada. His second fight was on one of his big cousin’s undercard – in Madison Square Gardens. As a first two fights go, they were hardly environmentally difficult to get out your bed for…

His third fight, in Belfast, was his first to go the distance as he had won his first two by knockout. The next seventeen fights have seen only another eight knockouts and the fighters he has faced are opponents that true world level heavyweights would be expected to get out the ring quickly.

The names in amongst his wins that do stand out are his fight with Dorian Darch – won all 6 rounds, Andriy Rudenko – won widely on points and his last fight in 2016 against Fred Kassi when he won by a 7th round technical stoppage after a clash of heads.

The problem is simple, people are searching for Darch, Rudenko or Kassi in any world title mix. In fact, none of them appear in the WBA, WBC, IBF or WBO rankings. Rudenko is on the IBO list – at number 28! Question – who of note has he fought? Nobody…
Unfortunately, Hughie has been more notable for being in fights he has not been in.

It is widely believed that he turned down a fight with Deontay Wilder to fight 37 year old Larry Olubamiwo.

He has suffered from a very serious and debilitating skin condition, acne conglobate, that meant his ordered fight against Dillian Whyte for the British title was shelved. The condition needed medical treatment and he was operating well below his capacity throughout his career up until he got it. That treatment kept him away from the ring for a while and hampered all of his previous fights as preparation is difficult when you cannot spar two days in a row.

Following his win against Kassi he was scheduled to face Joseph Parker. David Haye had been ranked number 1 by the WBO but took the fight with Tony Bellew instead. It put Hughie in the driving seat but Parker’s guys won the purse bid and the fight was due to take place in New Zealand earlier this year. Hughie’s health forced a pull out as he had a lower back injury – Parker then drafted in his former sparring partner.

This time round Hughie has been tucked away in the Lake District in scenes that are very reminiscent of Rocky as he chases cows and sheep, runs with tyres up massive hills and is very far away from and maddening crowd. What he is enjoying is a pain free environment as his acne conglobate is treated and causing him no issues.

Now the 23rd September in Manchester we get the answer to the question – just how good is Hughie Fury? Unlike many other world title fights with British boxers we are not holding our breathes but to be fair to Hughie, that might be to his advantage…

[si-contact-form form=’2′]