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Hughie Fury was looking to prove he is a contender at heavyweight, something he’d tried twice before. And just like those first two outings, he came up short today in London, dropping a clear decision to Alexander Povetkin.
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Povetkin (35-2, 24 KO) won on unanimous scores of 117-111. Bad Left Hook had the fight a bit closer, but two cards for Povetkin, 115-114 and 116-112. The Russian, who turns 40 on Monday, had some troubles with Fury’s length early on, but once he started finding a home for his right hand, Fury’s advantages faded away, and the 24-year-old cousin of Tyson Fury just never got anything going for the rest of the fight.
Combining this setback with his losses to Joseph Parker and Kubrat Pulev, it’s clear that Hughie just doesn’t have it at this level. He can hang in there for 12, compete to a degree, but he can’t beat these guys, and none of those men are the true elite of the division, either.
In that sense, you really have to wonder what’s next for Fury, if anything. He signed with Matchroom for this bout, and it was an aggressive move following nothing wins over Canadian club fighter Chris Norrad and wildly washed Samuel Peter earlier this year. But he came up short in much the same manner he has in the past.
He’s still young, yes, but there seems to be a clear ceiling for Hughie, and he’s bounced off of it and back to the floor for a third time now. He can compete at the level below this — he beat Sam Sexton handily for the British title in May 2018, after all — but it’s a question of whether or not he really has the desire to keep fighting with that knowledge. Would he be happy fighting the likes of Dereck Chisora, David Price, and Dave Allen? He’s always seemed to have real ambition beyond that level, and he’s gone for it, but it simply has not worked out.
As for Povetkin, this is a win that keeps him out there and in the mix. He’s aging, he also probably isn’t going to come around and beat the likes of Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder, and he’s already lost to Anthony Joshua, but say Andy Ruiz Jr beats Joshua again in December. Would you really count Povetkin out against Ruiz? Styles make fights and all that. So he’s still a contender.