At just 18, Hughie has confidently declared his intention to break ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson’s seemingly insurmountable record of becoming the youngest world heavyweight champion of the world at 20 and Peter hopes to step up his opponents accordingly in the coming months.
Hughie battles veteran Croatian Ivica Perkovic over six rounds in Dundalk on Friday night, with a 21 year age gap between the two fighters who obviously hold differing expectations at the Fairways Hotel.
“People will look at Hughie’s opponent Perkovic and see that he has lost 20 fights, without looking at the fact that in his last two bouts he took (Alexander’s) Dimitrenko and Ustinov the distance,” Fury told World Boxing News.
“Dimitrenko is a former European champion and Perkovic dropped him in the fourth round, taking him the full eight and only lost on a close decision in the end.
“Both of those fighters have 42 KO’s between them and have only lost three out of 75 fights. Ustinov fights David Tua next which shows you the level that he is at and Perkovic went the distance with him in April without getting into too much trouble.
“This shows that Hughie is stepping up fast now after just six fights as on the 21st were hoping to get Lubos Suda, who fought Ola Afolabi for a WBO cruiserweight title in 2011 and was once a European champion also. Suda has won 30 from 38, with 22 KO’s and was recently Czech champion. We are just waiting now to see if he wants it and then we hope to fight Evgeny Orlov ‘From Hell’ on September 14th.
“We will then be moving Hughie on to Tyson’s undercard with Haye on the 28th and we will look at who is around for titles or someone that’s rated higher with more KO’s for that one.
“Then October and November Hughie will be out four times again and then we start all over again in February 2014 after a short break with fourteen fights done as promoised this year.
Peter then added: “Hughie will definitely be shocking people by who he is going to be fighting.”
Former ABA champion Hughie has already fought in four countries through the early stages of his career stopping four from his first six in the process, and makes it five on Friday with his eagerly-anticipated trip to Ireland.
