Unbeaten #5 WBO, #13 IBF heavyweight contender Hughie Fury (20-0, 10 KOs), the cousin of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, will be facing undefeated #3 WBO, #5 IBF, #7 WBC Andy Ruiz (28-0 19 KOs) on October 29 on the undercard of the Tyson Fury vs. Wladimir Klitschko card at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, UK.
If Hughie beats Ruiz, it could put him in position to fight WBO champion Tyson Fury or IBF belt holder Anthony Joshua. I cannot immediate Tyson Fury fighting Hughie. I can’t see that happening, because I don’t think Tyson would ever do something like that. Hughie vs. Joshua would be a really, really bad idea as well.
I don’t like that match-up, ever. I don’t care how much more seasoning the 21-year-old Hughie gets. He’s not going to ever beat a guy like Joshua. Hughie is a decent bottom feeder type of heavyweight, but if you throw in the ring with Joshua, it’s going to end badly for Hughie. I think it ends badly for Hughie if he fights guys like Kubrat Pulev, Joseph Parker, Luis Ortiz, David Haye, Alexander Povetkin and Wladimir Klitschko. Those are all contenders.
Deontay Wilder would be way too strong for Hughie, and I think would be an even worse fight for him than a match against Joshua. There are other guys that I think would beat Hughie as well like Jarrell Miller, Eric Molina, Bryant Jennings, Lucas Browne, Ruslan Chgagaev, and Johan Duhaupas. So if all those guys can beat Hughie, then why is he ranked so high by the IBF and WBO, you ask. Honestly, I don’t know what the International Boxing Federation and World Boxing Organization are thinking in giving Hughie a ranking.
I don’t see Hughie as being good enough to beat the top contenders, and he looked gawd awful in his last fight against Fred Kassi last April. That was the fight where Hughie got tired by the 6th round and began to take big shots to the head by the better conditioned Kassi. It was in this round that Hughie clashed heads with Kassi, creating a huge cut over Highie’s left eye. The fight was then stopped in the 7th due to Hughie’s cut up eye.
The thing is, Hughie was exhausted and there was little chance that he was going to be able to go the full 12 rounds. Kassi was coming on, and Hughie had nothing left in the tank. Without the miracle cut that Hughie received, I think he would have been knocked out. I guess it was just dumb luck that Hughie’s head collided with Kassi’s in the 6th round. Hughie looked like a Billy goat with the way he rammed heads with Kassi.
Ruiz is a flabby heavyweight with good power, but he’s very, very flawed in terms of boxing skills. It won’t be a big deal if Hughie beats the 27-year-old Ruiz, because I don’t think he rates being ranked in the top 10. Ruiz struggled badly two years ago to beat a past his prime Sergey Liakhovich. I couldn’t believe how bad Ruiz looked in that fight. Since then, Ruiz has fought nothing but poor opponents. Heck, I don’t even rate Liakhovich as a good fighter. I mean, he’s lost four out of his last five fights. What does that tell you about Liakhovich? The fact that Ruiz struggled badly against him tells me all I need to know about him.
In Ruiz’s last four fights, he’s beaten Josh Gormley, Ray Austin, Raphael Zumbano Love, and Joel Godfrey. I really don’t know why Ruiz hasn’t stepped it up long before this to fight better opposition, but I guess his management weren’t comfortable with moving him at a faster pace.
Ruiz does punch hard, and I think he could probably knock Hughie out if he connects with something big. However, Hughie has a hit and run style of fighting, so it’s going to be hard for Ruiz to land anything on a consistent enough basis for him to KO Hughie unless he puts a lot of pressure on him.
As badly flawed as Ruiz is, I think he could KO Hughie if he runs out of gas again. We’ve heard how Hughie’s skin condition is causing him to fatigue easily. I don’t buy it, but whatever. I think Hughie just doesn’t have the stamina to be running around the ring like he does. It’s hard for big heavyweights to around like Hughie does in the ring. That’s why it’s pretty important that Hughie learn to stand in the pocket and trust his chin to actually fight his opponents instead of playing the old hit and run game that he uses. However, I guess Hughie can’t stand in the pocket even if he wanted to, because he lacks the punching power to keep his opponents off of him. Hughie’s noodle arms can’t seem to come up with enough power to make his opponents respect him unless it’s someone really weak. That’s probably why Hughie is always running around the ring, because he can’t stand in front of his opponents to actually fight them.