By Edward Chaykovsky
Peter Fury, father and trainer of unbeaten heavyweight contender Hughie Fury (20-0, 10KOs), believes his son is ready to challenge IBF world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (17-0, 17KOs) next.
Joshua captured the title in April when he knocked out Charles Martin, and then retained the belt in June with a stoppage win over Dominic Breazeale. His next defense is being targeted for a date in November, according to his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport.
In his last fight back in April, Hughie had more than his fair share of issues while dealing with veteran Fred Kassi. Hughie suffered a serious cut which caused an early end to the contest and earned him a seven round technical decision win.
Peter Fury, who also trains nephew WBO/IBO/WBA champion Tyson Fury, expects a lot of people to view Hughie as an easy defense for Joshua.
"Hughie is in a good place. He's turning 22 in September, had 20 fights and he's a lot better physically and in terms of health than he was. He's ready to face these kind of fights and there's no reason why they can't happen. He'd be the most technically proficient fighter Joshua has faced by a mile. A lot of people have underestimated him on his past performances because he's been struggling with the health issues and as a result was performing at 30%-40%," Peter Fury told Sky Sports.
"We've got confidence in him. We know what he's capable of doing. He's an excellent boxer and he's very, very tough as well. He's good at doing rounds so it'd be interesting. I know Eddie Hearn has some other options available to him that he mentioned when we spoke, and I'm waiting for them to get back to me but as long as the finances are right then we'll take it."
If the fight goes down, Peter believes Joshua will attempt to overwhelm Hughie early for a blazing knockout. Only two fighters, Breazeale and Dillian Whyte, have lasted more than three rounds with Joshua. No fighter has taken Joshua beyond the seventh.
"Their tactics will be to try and steamroller right over the top of Hughie because they'll say AJ is too strong and powerful and will be able to walk through him and get him out of here pretty quick. We're quite content that that would not be the case so we're happy to take the fight. There's only one way to find out and if all can be agreed then it would be the next fight," Peter Fury said.
"We are up for the fight if they want it. We've been offered it a few times and turned it down but the only time we would ever do that is on health issues. That's now okay and we've got to the bottom of it and we're looking forward to taking this fight. You'll see a different Hughie Fury when he comes out again."
