Hughie Fury has confirmed that his fight against Michael Hunter has been rescheduled for later this year.
The heavyweight, who is the cousin of Tyson Fury, was originally set to meet the American at Manchester’s AO Arena on July 2.
But the pair will now square off on October 29 after the showdown, a final eliminator for Daniel Dubois’ WBA ‘regular’ title in the sport’s premier division, was handed a new date.
The original fight –– in a weight class in which the aforementioned ‘Gypsy King’ Tyson holds the WBC world title –– had to be postponed due to an illness suffered by Fury, who has previously challenged for the WBO world title at heavyweight against Joseph Parker, losing a majority decision back in September 2017.
Fury, whose promotional outfit Boxxer has a deal with Sky Sports, confirmed the news to Sky Sports News on Tuesday.
“There’s nothing worse than having to pull out of a fight. My path is now direct for Michael Hunter and then onto the next.”
Fury is 26-3 (15 KOs) in his career, having most recently been in the ring last October when he retired Christian Hammer at the end of the fifth round of a scheduled 10 at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, while Hunter is 20-1-2 with 14 quick, with his only defeat coming at cruiserweight against Oleksandr Usyk.
Ukrainian southpaw Usyk retained the WBA Super, IBF, IBO and WBO world heavyweight titles last weekend at the Jeddah Superdome in Saudi Arabia against Anthony Joshua and now looks set for a money-spinning showdown for all the belts against WBC champion Fury, after picking up the vacant Ring Magazine belt, potentially before the end of the year and potentially back in the Middle East.
Hunter, who was a US national heavyweight champion as an amateur, believes a win against Hughie Fury – who won Youth World Championships gold at super-heavyweight back in 2012 – will lead to him pitting his wits against his 34-year-old cousin.
But Fury isn’t quite buying that.
“He can say what he wants –– at the end of the day, he’s getting knocked spark out.
“I don’t want to devalue him, he’s a good fighter and obviously no one wanted to fight him. But these are the fights I want. We’ll see what he’s got to bring on the night.
“I’m 100 per cent looking forward, to the opportunity for the world titles.”