Never been a fan of The Skirt but that was the most entertainment he has provided in his career to date and his best performance. Might get a bag of PPV loot but he still looks nowhere near a live contender at World level.
I was going to post on the same subject last night. When you look at the common opponent's I think a fight between Hughie and Whyte is very intriguing, and a fight I think Hughie could win I have it as a 50-50. Hughie was never in trouble against Parker and imo that was a very close fight (shades of Ali) ofc, where as Whyte fought very dirty and nearly got stopped after concussing Parker with a headbutt. Against Sasha Hughie held his own I did think he lost the fight but Whyte got absolutely iced by a 2 year older Povetkin. And Hughie beat Wach far easier than Whyte who also didn't have a horrible cut to deal with. Hughie is definitely on the up as a fighter only 26 and at 26 probably has one of the best Resumes in the HW division.
He started to look better once following up with the right hand after the jab which he didn't use until his dad told him to start boxing halfway through the fight. I thought he looked very sloppy in the first half of the fight as he was just going for broke and wasn't setting up anything. Better performance from Fury but lets not get too carried away here, Wach is a 41 year old punching bag these days who's getting passed through the Matchroom HWs to shake off ring rust. I expect to see Wach in with Hrgovic, Parker, Zhang or Wardley next whilst Hughie will probably get Shawndell Terrell Winters next, another Matchroom punching bag.
Not a bad shout that although i do think he would beat Pulev if he fought him next. Pulev was gun shy last night and i think all them uppercuts he was eating last night will have made him shot bits.
The tough start and high level m/making that Hughie has had could actually serve him well going forward and if he's actively looking to increase his strength and power he should keep that up. He definately looked a bit thicker set last night. If he can maintain his boxing while figuring out when to plant his feet and go on the offense a bit more confidently, he could definately crack the top 15. He's got youth on his side and a decent team behind him so we might just be seeing him coming into his own.
I remember Peter Fury saying that Hughie and Whyte were friends and wouldn't fight each other, I think this might play a part in Whyte being so vocal about what he thought of Tyson Fury mental health issues, although I think Whyte went about it in totally the wrong way. If Whyte and Hughie were to fight I'd back Hughie all the way. I just wish he would take it to his opponents more, he's a tough lad to go with his ability, hopefully now we'll start to see more of it from him.
Probably won't see Hughie fight in the US as Peter isn't allowed in, and I doubt PBC would allow their fighters to fight on Matchroom shows unless it was for something meaningful.
Hughie vs Zhang - Zhang is big step up from Wach and has decent power, a good jab but is a clumsy and slow fighter. Werent they previously scheduled to fight it other but it was cancelled?
To a certain level, I would favour him over Wach and I would favour him against another linked Hughie opponent in Price. Like I said Zhang does carry decent power and does have a good jab but slow, Clumsy and easy to hit. Hughie would be too quick and elusive for Zhang i think. Considering Zhang is ranked by a few of the governing bodies it would be a good match for Hughie.
Good post. I pretty much agree with all you've said. He's still only young and definitely improving with each fight. He's got all the necessary attributes to keep building on . I like his quiet but deep determination and I truly think he will get better and improve with each coming fight.
It was Wach so I'm not getting too carried away but I was impressed with Hughie last night as well. You can see he works on fixing his faults from previous fights and is still improving and at an age where he could still improve a lot. Hughie is definitely good enough to mix it with the rest at world level. He'll lose to some but he'd beat some as well IMO. If I got to pick his next fight I'd like to see him fight in a rematch with Pulev. Another thing is, If that cut last night is the same one as the Pulev fight, that would be a bit of a concern going forward.