By Shaun Brown
Carshalton, England –
After having to deal with a trio of opponent withdrawals last week in Germany, Hughie Fury had to deal with an opponent tonight who didn’t much fancy the task at hand.
Hughie, the unbeaten cousin to unified world heavyweight champion Tyson, was having his eighteenth professional bout against ‘War Machine’ Larry Olubamiwo (11-19, 9 KOs).
From the outset Fury’s opponent continually turned himself to one side which led to some shots landing behind Olubamiwo.
At one point the Londoner nearly turned himself inside out as he went tumbling through the ropes through no fault but his own.
The end was nigh as soon as the first ball rang. Fury looked to attack the body and land his long reaching right hands. And with 1.37 gone in the opener Fury planted a punch to the body of Olubamiwo who failed to beat Ian John Lewis’s count.
Afterwards, Peter Fury – trainer and father to Hughie – was a frustrated man: “We want good fights for him [Hughie]. We had a guy who was 15-1 and we get all these, in my opinion, excuses. Me and (promoter) Mick [Hennessy] have been speaking about it and he’s going to get in serious fights in February. He’s definitely been avoided. We’ve offered Manuel Charr and various fighters in the top 10 and they’ve pulled out.”
“I’m upset that I never got a good opponent for the fight in Dusseldorf,” said Hughie. “I just want to show my full ability out there.”
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Flyweight Andrew Selby made it three wins from three after a dazzling display against former world title challenger Everth Briceno in what was a super flyweight contest.
Selby, the most successful amateur boxer to ever come out of Wales, was full of his usual array of world class movement and punches that his opponent could not see coming at times to pick up a 60-54 decision in this six-round contest.
The 26-year-old was simply levels above his veteran 37-year-old opponent who spent the majority of the fight just looking to lay a glove on Selby.
Moving to his left and right, throwing speedy combinations and accurate body shots was the repeat setting that Selby used to good effect along with his overflowing confidence to bamboozle the Nicaraguan.
Briceno, who has shared the ring with the likes of Fernando Montiel and Leo Santa Cruz, was never in any real danger of being stopped but just had no answer from the - now you see him, now you don’t - movement of Selby.
The penultimate round was Briceno’s best as he was able to tag the elusive Welshman but nothing that gave the man tipped to be world champion, sooner rather than later, much trouble.
It was a decent workout for Selby and observers and media will be keen to see who he is matched with next after tonight’s outing.
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Light welterweight Danny “Cassius” Connor (14-9-2, 2 KOs) didn’t have to exert himself too much to pick up only his second career win inside the distance.
The local lad teed up his Bulgarian opponent Radoslav Mitev (7-25-1, 1 KO) with the jab before drilling home a right hand to plant “That’s all she wrote” on the chin of Mitev.
Connor, 29, picked up a good win against Ricky Boylan last time out and keeps some of the momentum going after tonight and will now look to domestic title opportunities in 2016.
"I'm not used to knocking people out," said Connor post-fight.
"When I used to throw my shots I never used to sit on my shots. I used to be so concerned with not being hit so much."
He added: "I'd love to fight the winner of Tommy Martin and John Wayne Hibbert for the Commonwealth [title]."
Shaun Brown is Boxing Scene's UK Editor. Follow him on Twitter @sbrown2pt0 or contact him at sbrownboxing@gmail.com
