Here’s The Stuff You Need To Know About Hughie Fury (And Some Stuff You Didn’t)
The Tale of the Tape
A lot was made a few fights ago when Joseph Parker took on Alexander Dimitrenko about how they’d specifically targeted a taller fighter to get Joe used to boxing above his own size. The idea was that the heavyweight division was full of behemoths standing six and a half feet tall, dudes that’d look down on the 6’4” Joseph Parker. At the time Kevin Barry probably had Tyson Fury more in mind but his cousin Hughie is no short stack either.
Hughie stands a good 198cm tall, so six foot six in the old change. That’s five centimetres (two inches) taller than Parker and the reach advantage will be even greater with those long arms of Hughie’s. 203cm reach, they reckon. Both guys keep an orthodox stance which keeps from complicating things further. Parker’s likely to weigh in heavier, despite the height disparity – at least if their last bouts are anything to go by.
The Record
Hughie’s a young fella, still only 22 years old, so that professional record isn’t exactly comprehensive. 20-0 with 10 knockouts, the numbers make for good reading but he’s never really beaten anybody of note in there. The biggest step up he’s taken was against Fred Kassi in his last fight back in April 2016 but although he got the decision there, Hughie looked pretty sluggish before the fight had to be stopped after an accidental head clash left Fury bleeding above his left eye. With the clear lead on all three scorecards, Hughie was awarded the fight. He hasn’t fought since.
Safe to say that a title shot at this stage in his career is premature and, especially with the fight being in New Zealand, he’ll be at a disadvantage. Then again he’s so young. When people analyse Hughie Fury they tend to speak of his potential and this fight, win or lose, elevates him into the top tier of contenders in heavyweight boxing. Hey and his cousin overcame bigger odds in winning his belts.
One thing worth mentioning is that despite the sheltered reputation he has with his dad as a trainer and a world heavyweight champion for a cousin, Hughie has fought all over the place. Not recently, granted, but his first few bouts as a pro saw him jump from Canada to USA to Britain to Romania, plus he’s scrapped in Ireland and Monaco as well… although 12 of his last 13 fights have been in the UK. Only one of his international fights was on a Tyson Fury undercard as well.
His Daddy
Yeah now here’s where we into the complications. Hughie, like his cousin Tyson, is trained by his father Peter Fury. It’s all definitely in keeping with the family first attitude of the Fury’s but it’s best not to underestimate the abilities of a trainer who has taken one protégée to a world title and another to a shot at one here. Peter Fury is a genuinely talented boxing mind and the way he crafted Tyson’s approach to that Klitschko win proves as much.
But he’s also a convicted criminal and served a decade behind bars back in the 90s-00s. Nothing small time either: the dude ran amphetamines through the Manchester underground crime scene, rising his way to the top of the baron ranks. Then after he got caught and chucked behind bars for ten years (possession with intent to sell) he kept on dealing from a distance. In 2008 he got another couple years when he was snapped trying to launder some of them illegal pounds. The court made him pay back around a million British quid – although they could only make him pay back the stuff he got caught with.
The Mirror: “A court heard that Peter Fury was a man of “considerable intelligence” who had set up a complex business network using 12 different names and accounts in America, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Spain, Belgium and Ireland. Throughout, he continued to insist that he made his money by car dealing, boxing and bare knuckle fighting.”
Presumably he’s broken back good again now. He says so. Problem is that Immigration NZ have a rule that you need special exemption to enter the country if you’ve served at least five years in prison. The fight was initially meant to take place on April Fool’s Day but was pushed back a month after delays in getting the contract signed. It now seems pretty clear that Peter Fury’s visa application was the reason for the hold-up with plenty of paperwork to be taken care of. Fury did his part and was optimistic… but according to reports he’s now been denied entry to Aotearoa. Frankly, that could be a massive swing in the projections for this bout. (Duco winning that purse bid is absolutely enormous now - supposing everything goes ahead as planned).
That Whole Skin Condition Thingy
The win over Fred Kassi seemed to muddy a lot of waters, with Fury looking lethargic for a lot of the bout not to mention the crazy ending. But one thing that wasn’t clear was his skin. Hughie had pretty visible blemishes all over him and it was later revealed he’d been struggling with acne conglobata. Apparently it’s one of the worst varieties of acne you can get and it affects you in a number of ways. One of those is fatigue and this seems to fly pretty straight with the claim of Peter Fury’s that Hughie had only been fighting at roughly 30% of his capacity by that time.
The disease wrecked his immune system and there are stories of how he’d wake up in the morning with his sheets covered in blood. Even taking off his shirt would rupture his sores. It’s something he reckons he’s dealt with for several years, since he was a teenager, but it was only properly diagnosed in the aftermath of the Kassi fight, where he was obviously suffering as badly as he ever had. The specialist told him it was the kind of thing that in the old days you’d be sent straight to the hospital for and also expressed disbelief that he was slugging away as a professional boxer in that state but a little medication and things took a turn for the better. By his own claims, he’s now in the clear. Literally and figuratively.
Along with the situation regarding Peter Fury, this is the other major wildcard factor. If Hughie’s now unlocked these barrels of energy then it’s impossible to tell what he’ll be like. At the levels he was fighting at previously he’d probably give Joe a run but lose comfortably. If that was only 30% and he’s now at a hundy though… that could be game-changing. Of course we’ve gotta take whatever comes out of either camp this close to a belt fight with a grain of salt. Also, his medication apparently caused him to cut up quite easily, whether or not that’s still a relevant fear we don’t know. Probably not.
The UKAD Drug Hearing
For a couple of years now there’s been a background drama about a failed drug test and the whispers now are that he’ll have to face a United Kingdom Anti-Doping hearing in a couple months to deal with it. At the time – early 2015 – both Hughie and his cousin Tyson returned positive samples for a banned steroid known as nandrolone. They also both deny that they’d taken anything they shouldn’t have and while they were given suspended sentences, there’s been talk of a hearing for ages now. That it’s happening again in the lead in to a fight after Hughie’s been inactive for the last year is frustrating.
There may or may not be any substance to the positive tests, we’ve seen them go both ways in sports so there’s no reason to get worked up yet. The hearing, if it even happens at all, won’t be until after the Parker fight and there have been assurances that both Parker and Fury are gonna be strictly tested (as is the norm) before they do battle. It won’t affect the fight other than being another of many silly distractions.
Lads
What you shouldn’t expect, despite the name, is a war or words at the weigh-in or beyond. Tyson is a talker and Peter is a talker too. Hughie is not, he’s a fella who prefers to let the fists say all that he wants to say. Joseph Parker is exactly the same. Going by the reputations, Hughie is surrounded by gypsies and Joe is surrounded by cowboys… but neither is gonna be yapping away to the media or each other.
However the word from Pete is that Tyson Fury will be making the trip to Aotearoa in support of his cousin. Some will look at his various personal battles/dramas over the last year and wonder if that’s the best thing for Hughie but those people are wrong. Tyson and Hughie have trained together for their entire careers and part of their whole internal family dynamic is that us-against-the-world sorta thing. They’re in it together and Tyson isn’t gonna be a distraction – he’s gonna be an asset. Especially if Peter isn’t able to be there.
You’re probably best never to doubt any Fury’s commitment to another Fury.