Kubrat Pulev faces Hughie Fury on Oct.27 in IBF title eliminator

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Hughie Fury will be able to earn himself another world title shot if he beats former heavyweight world title challenger Kubrat Pulev on October 27 in their International Boxing Federation title eliminator winner in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The Pulev vs. Fury winner will be the mandatory challenger to IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Fury, 23, is the third contender that the IBF had to go through before they finally got someone that had the desire to fight the always tough 6’4 ½” Pulev. Dillian ‘The Body Snatcher’ Whyte and Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller both turned down the fight with Pulev after their management failed to win the purse bid for the fight.

Some boxing fans think that Whyte and Miller lacked the confidence to travel to Bulgaria to face the 37-year-old Pulev. It finally took the 23-year-old Hughie to show some courage and step up to the plate to do what Whyte and Miller didn’t want to do in facing Pulev in his home country. Whyte and Miller have arguably become spoiled in fighting in their home countries of England and the U.S respectively. Having home advantage obviously helps.

“Two have refused so far – Whyte and Miller, but Fury has already said no problem and he will play,”said Pulev to skysports.com. “The date is clear – October 27, the fight will be in Sofia.”

The troubling aspect about the 6’6” Hughie fighting in the IBF title eliminator against Pulev is the fact that he recently lost a 12 round majority decision loss to former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Joseph Parker on September 23 last year in Manchester, England. Fury looked awful to the extreme in running and holding for 12 rounds against Parker, who was forced to chase him around the ring the entire fight. When Parker did occasionally catch up to Hughie, he had him hanging on him like a human version of Krazy Glue. It was unreal how much dreadful spoiling that Hughie did in the fight. Before that fight, Hughie had been working hard for four years to get a world title shot. But once Hughie got the fight that he’d been dreaming of against Parker, he spent the entire night spoiling like mad instead of trying to actively win the fight. Hughie fought like he was afraid. The kicker is that after the fight, Hughie and his trainer/father Peter Fury complained that they should have been given the victory. It was quite sad to see them both carrying on like that when it was painfully obvious that Parker was the better man. Hopefully we don’t see another night of spoiling for Hughie because he’s not going to keep getting world title shots if all he’s going to do is spoil and give away whatever chances he has to win the fight by dashing around the ring like he wants no part of his opponent.

” It looks like it’ll be a very interesting game. He is a good, young boxer,”Pulev said about Hughie.

Pulev was previously in position to challenge Joshua for his IBF heavyweight title last year in October, but a shoulder injury derailed his chances, forcing him to pull out of the fight a week before the match. Pulev was subsequently replaced by Carlos Takam, who was halted in the 10th round. Joshua will be making a defense next month on September 22 against his World Boxing Association mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Joshua’s slate is clear for April 13 next year, which gives the winner of the Pulev-Hughie fight a slight chance of facing him on that date if AJ’s promoter Eddie Hearn chooses to not match him against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, Dillian Whyte or Jarrell Miller. It’s believed that Hearn will stick one of his Matchroom stable fighters Whyte or Miller in with Joshua on April 13 rather than risking his unbeaten record by matching him against Deontay.

Hughie comes into the October 27 fight against Pulev with a 5th round stoppage win over domestic level fighter Sam Sexton on May 12.