Home Boxing News Hughie Fury unimpressed by Anthony Joshua’s knockout victory of Alexander Povetkin

Hughie Fury unimpressed by Anthony Joshua’s knockout victory of Alexander Povetkin

Hughie Fury

British heavyweight contender Hughie Fury 21-1 (11) wasn’t impressed by Anthony Joshua’s seventh round stoppage of perennial contender Alexander Povektin in defence of his world heavyweight titles at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night.

Fury, the 24-year-old cousin of lineal heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, is scheduled to face Kubrat Pulev 25-1 (13) on October 27 in an IBF final eliminator at Arena Armeec in Sophia, Bulgaria.

“I have always been confident of winning that Joshua fight anyway,” Fury said in an interview with The Independent.

Fury unsuccessfully challenged New Zealand’s Joseph Parker for his WBO heavyweight title in Manchester a year ago, losing a majority decision by scores of 118-110, 118-110 and 114-114.

But Fury remains confident that he has the tools, game plan and discipline to defeat the wildly popular Joshua.

“It is the fight that we have always wanted, and [the Povetkin fight] has only made me more confident,” said Fury.

“He just didn’t have much of a game plan against Povetkin. And early on in the fight, when he was caught at the end of the first round, I really think he was hurt.

“It made him fight a lot more cautiously, and even though in the end it went the way that I thought, you have to say that he made hard work of it. There’s a lot of vulnerability there!”

The IBF, WBO and WBO heavyweight champion had to overcame a slow start that saw him suffer a suspected broken nose during the opening two rounds. Somewhat surprisingly, all three official judges had Joshua leading when stopped the 39-year-old Russian veteran in the seventh round.