Hughie Fury’s failure to dislodge the WBO world heavyweight champion Joseph Parker in his first major fight was accompanied by such passionate wailing from his supporters that he left the Manchester Arena a wounded king rather than a fallen prince.
Perversely, the young Mancunian’s reputation is enhanced rather than diminished. That will be minor comfort to him, however, given Parker is now perfectly placed to pursue much bigger nights: against the winner of the putative rematch between Tony Bellew and David Haye, followed by a mega-fight next summer against Anthony Joshua. There is also the prospect of fighting Deontay Wilder, the unbeaten American knockout artist.
That was the lingering bruise from this setback for Fury: the lost chance to take the place on the world stage vacated by his cousin, Tyson, the semi-retired former champion whose title Parker brought to town – and left with, as well. The World Boxing Organisation crown is a minor one, but it leads to greater riches.
Fury’s promoter, Mick Hennessy, was incandescent after two of the three judges returned scores of 118-110 against him, alongside a 114-114 call which was closer to the mark, and spoke vehemently but without proof of “corruption at the highest level in boxing”.
He said a rematch was “a worst-case scenario”, adding: “I’m going to get that overturned. I’m going to find out who’s behind boxing [decisions] like that. I know [corruption] is a strong word, but I tell you now, there are forces at work around this game.”
Hennessy said there was “100%, definitely” an agenda against the Fury family. The challenger’s father and trainer, Peter, joined Hennessy in his indignation, although he was not so confident that lawyers would get them a result.
However, as Parker’s experienced trainer, Kevin Barry, said: “Hughie’s a smart guy, a very good boxer, and his time will come again, at the age of 23. Hughie will fight for the title again, no doubt about it.”
The fight was close. Parker was the hunter throughout, frustrated and outboxed in the first half of the contest but more effective in the latter stages, while Fury boxed with high concentration levels on the back foot, sniping intelligently from good angles with light jabs and occasional short right-hand counters off the ropes. But he never properly took command of the fight.
The Guardian had Parker winning the first round and the last six. Fury took four of the middle rounds, with one even. While his father said he was kind in giving, “three or four rounds” to the champion, he also admitted: “[Fury] could have done more with the right hand, coming across. I kept telling him, ‘Put more right hands over.’ When he did throw it, he looked good doing it.”
The fighter would only say later: “I’ve done all my talking.” Parker, however, was happy to give his take on what he considered a good win.
“I put on a lot of pressure and landed some big shots. It was a close fight, but I thought I came out on top. Hughie didn’t hurt me. He was awkward and different. His movement was good, so I give him credit there, but he didn’t have power. His jab was very soft, pitter-patter. But he used it well to move around and to avoid some big shots. That’s why I was chasing him for 12 rounds. There were a few stages where he was a bit dazed, but he did well to recover and keep moving.”
The problem was, as good as he looked, Fury did not pull the trigger often enough, especially in the later rounds. That allowed the judges to give the New Zealander the tighter rounds on aggression alone.
Fury Sr claimed Barry told him in the ring immediately afterwards the decision was “a robbery”, but that is not how the former Olympic silver medallist recalled it. “No, I said to him the 118-110 was a little large for me and it was a really good fight. He said: ‘I’m pleased you came here to the UK and got a fair go.’ I said: ‘Yes, we thank you very much for that.’ He said: “Let’s have a beer later on,’ and I said ‘OK’.”
Regardless of the conflicting interpretations and nuances, the deeper concern was with the unspecified “agenda” against the Fury family, with neither perpetrator nor detail identified. All Fury Sr would say was, “I’ve got an idea why the decision’s gone against him, but I’m not going to make that public. I’ll speak to Mick about it. But we will look to go another route.”
Wherever that leads, there is a lot of fight in young Hughie Fury yet.
Brave Campbell suffers narrow defeat
Luke Campbell, meanwhile, failed in his bid to win the WBA lightweight title after a tight contest against Jorge Linares in California fell to a split decision.
The Englishman won gold at London 2012 as part of an excellent amateur career, but this was by far the toughest test since he turned professional.
Campbell endured a bad start, being floored in the second and while he recovered in the later rounds, the Venezuelan used all his experience to close out the win.
Scot Victor Loughlin scored the contest 115-113 to Campbell, but the other judges gave it to Linares with scores of 115-112 and 114-113.
The defeat is the second of Campbell’s career after his shock loss against Yvan Mendy in 2015, while Linares – whose last two fights were points victories against the Mancunian Anthony Crolla – extended his record to 43 wins.
The first round was a cagey affair with Linares landing a good right hand and it was the right hand that put Campbell on the canvas in the next.
A cut opened under Campbell’s right eye and while the Yorkshireman recovered well, Linares was still landing the better shots and Campbell was left with too much to do in the second half of the contest.
He was excellent in the middle and later rounds and fought his way back to make it close on the scorecards, but Linares never looked particularly troubled.
In the ring afterwards, Campbell said: “No one can ever doubt my heart. I got off to a rocky start, he hit me with a nice clean shot in the second round, caught me on the eye and cut it. I wasn’t dazed or anything like that, just a nice shot that put me on my back. From then I had double-vision in one eye for the rest of the fight.”
He added: “I thought I won the fight. He’s a great champion but I thought I outclassed him. I didn’t think he was landing any shots whatsoever and I was catching him with all the clean shots.” PA
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