Hughie Fury targeting Joshua, Wilder & Parker for title shot

Boxingnews24.com

By Tim Royner

Former heavyweight world title challenger Hughie Fury (20-1, 10 KOs) says he’s motivated to work his way back into position to challenge for another world title at heavyweight in the near future.

The 23-year-old Hughie says he’s interested in facing WBC champion Deontay Wilder, IBF/WBA champ Anthony Joshua or WBO belt holder Joseph Parker. Hughie wants a crack at one of those guys to try and win a belt.

The 6’6” Hughie hasn’t fought since losing to Joseph Parker by a 12 round majority decision last September at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Hughie wasted his opportunity by running from Parker and tying him up each time he would get close enough to throw a shot. Hughie needs A LOT of improvement if he’s to win a world title when he eventually gets another shot. As young as Hughie is, he’s probably going to get another champion at a world title in the next 2 or 3 years if he can stay active and get some quality wins under his belt.

Hughie will be fighting British heavyweight champion Sam Sexton (24-3, 9 KOs) on May 12th in Bolton. Hughie is expected to win this fight, but he might not. Sexton, 33, is the far more experienced fighter of the two with better punching power, and he’s got a nice 9-fight winning streak going for him since 2012. Sexton hasn’t lost a fight since being stopped in the 4th round by David Price in May 2012. That was when Price was still in his prime, and fighting a very high level. Sexton recently beat 6’7” Gary Cornish by a 12 round unanimous decision last October. The fight proved that Sexton can handle bigger heavyweights.

“I’ve got the buzz back and I’m really excited to get back into the ring again,” said Hughie via Fight News. “The heavyweight division has really come alive and it’s the perfect time for me to get myself back into a great position to be challenging for a world title again in the not-to-distant-future, whether it’s against Wilder, Joshua or Parker.”

It’s scary to think of Hughie getting another crack at a world title after the way he fought Parker last year. Hughie was running from Parker, and not even trying to fight back in a logical manner. The referee Marcus McDonnell could have stopped the fight if he wanted to and disqualify Hughie for being so negative and not trying to fight back. The referee allowed Hughie to get away with spoiling for 12 rounds.

Hughie’s loss to Parker dropped him from No.1 to No.12 with the World Boxing Organization. That’s too much of a drop off from where he was at before. For a lot of fighters, they sanctioning bodies drop them from their top 15 entirely after they lost. The WBO has given Hughie a huge break by keeping him in their top 15, even though you can argue that he doesn’t rate to be ranked at all period. A win for Hughie over Sexton might give him a top 10 ranking. That would be a huge positive for Hughie.

Hughie could get hurt if he faces Wilder or Joshua for a world title. Those guys are more aggressive than Parker, who had a hard time cutting the ring off and getting to Hughie. If Hughie is going to run from Wilder and Joshua, he’s going to get caught eventually, because those guys won’t be afraid to chase him down and throw their best power shots. Parker was too slow in cutting off the ring on Hughie.

When Parker would catch up to Hughie, he’d get put in a clinch immediately and prevented from letting hit his hands go. Wilder and Joshua would try and fight through Hughie’s clinches so they could nail him with shots. They wouldn’t just let Hughie hold the way Parker did without doing something about it.

”This is going to be a hard fight and I know to get where I want to be and that’s challenging for a world title, I’ve got to beat him and take the British belt first,” Hughie said. ”I’ve been locked away with my dad training hard and working on plenty of things and people will notice a major difference in me this time around.”

Hughie would have been better off picking out a fringe contender to face instead of wasting time fighting for the British heavyweight title against Sexton. At least if Hughie were to get beaten, he’d be losing to a world class contender. If Hughie gets beaten by a domestic level fighter like Sexton, it’s going to be major blow to his career. Being rated No.1 by the WBO in the past was a sign that the sanctioning body respected his talent. Someone ranked as high as Hughie was doesn’t lose to a domestic level fighter like Sexton. Hughie should be able to knockout Sexton if he sits down on his shots the way David Price did in stopping him in the 4th round in 2012.

It’s going to be interesting to see what major changes Hughie has made in his game that will improve him from what we saw against Parker. Hughie has been fighting with a negative style for his entire 5-year-old pro career. It’s not going to be easy for Hughie to change the way he fights, because his timid fighting style is so well ingrained with him. I can’t see him breaking out of that style at this point without great effort. Some fighters can change their style, but it’s hard to have the new style stick for long. Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez is an example of a fighter that changed his style of slugging to become a boxer briefly. But if you look a Ramirez’s last 3 fights, he’s reverted back to the slugging style he had in the past.

Without Hughie making loads of improvement in his offensive game, he’s not going to go far in the division. Hughie was given a gift world title shot against Parker without having to beat any quality heavyweights to get that shot. It would be in Hughie’s best interest the second time around to fight actual contenders so he can improve his game. Fighting domestic level opposition like Sexton isn’t going to help Hughie improve enough for him to be competitive against Joshua, Wilder or Parker.

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