There I’ll be no birthday celebrations for Hughie Fury who turned 23 this week as he will be fully concentrating on the biggest fight of his boxing career.
Saturday night at the Manchester arena and his challenge to New Zealand’s WBO Heavyweight champion Joseph Parker can’t come quick enough. It’s been a frustrating wait for Fury who has been plagued by injury and health problems in recent months but promises a fully fit and better than ever performance.
This is a fantastic opportunity for Fury to become the second World Heavyweight champion in the Fury family behind his cousin Tyson who will be watching ringside and chomping at the bit I bet to get his own career back on track.
Champion Joseph Parker is undefeated in 23 contests with 18 KOs and is probably the slight favourite going into this fight. He looks the heavier puncher of the two men and has good skills and workrate and has done nothing wrong in his career thus far and at just 25 years of age there’s still plenty room for improvement.
However as his opponents improve his punching appears less of a threat, and his last 2 wins were uninspiring affairs which could be blamed on complacency.
Parker does everything well, good jab, and punches solidly with both hands, but so far he has looked beatable and scraped through against Andy Ruiz jr to win the WBO crown.
And his defence against Razvan Cojanu did not set the pulses racing as he laboured to 12 round decision victory.
Inactivity could be a problem for Fury who might need a few rounds to get his timing in sync and use his excellent jab, but he is very well schooled by his father Peter and has excellent movement.
It is a step up for Hughie but I expect him to show his pedigree and rise to the challenge with a great performance to pull out a piece of Heavyweight History and put this Hughie in the News.
READ MORE:
A Calm And Confident Hughie Fury Believes He Can Knock Out Joseph Parker
Parker’s Promoter Claims Peter Fury Has The Boxing Board ‘In His Pocket’