The WBO Heavyweight belt is on the line on Saturday at the Manchester Arena. Parker is the heavyweight champion but if his performance back in May against Razvan Cojanu is anything to go by, then Fury will have a decent shot in this. Parker was thoroughly unconvincing and unimpressive as he took a points win in what was his first title defence. This fight will be a pay-per-view event on YouTube and New Zealand’s Parker is unbeaten in 23 professional fights.
But Parker is a really rough fighter, scrappy around the edges and a little bit unpredictable and therefore hard to know how to handle. He won the vacant WBO heavyweight title against Andy Ruiz in Auckland back December 2016. Eighteen of his 23 career fights have ended with a knockout but neither of his last two fights have been. So this may be a tight fight and you have a price of 8/11 at Bet365 on the fight to go the distance. Parker can be baked at a price of 10/3 to win by a Decision.
Hughie Fury is the cousin of former world champion Tyson Fury. Almost two years ago Tyson Fury stepped into the ring and caused a huge shock in beating Wladimir Klitschko. Since then the Briton has given up his WBA, WBO and IBF titles and he has faced an anti-doping hearing as well. Tyson Fury was trained by his uncle Peter, who is Hughie’s father. The experienced trainer said this week that while Klitschko’s approach to that fight was controlled and careful against Tyson, Parker isn’t in that same boat and it’s hard to know what is going to come from him as he faces Hughie.
23 year old Fury is on the hunt for what would be his first world title. He takes a 20-0 career record into the fight and this is such a big opportunity for him at a young age to position himself to go out and unify the division, which is ultimately his goal. Fury is a former amateur world champion and shouldn’t be fazed at all by the big occasion. He fought at Madison Square Gardens early in his career. He is trained by his father Peter who has really put him through his pace against quicker fighters and heavier fighters to spar with.
Fury is the underdog for the fight, trading at a price of even money with bet365, despite being in the best shape of his career, according to his camp. This is a title fight after all and he is the challenger only. Fury has only landed knockout victories in half of his 20 fights which does suggest that his best and most likely route to success will be through earning a decision at the end of the fight. Fury is 11/2 to win this by a Decision at bet365 and that is the same price as Parker is to win it by a knockout. These are two young, hungry fighter and this should be a great title fight.
