UNBEATEN heavyweight contender Hughie Fury is on the mend after withdrawing from his mandated shot at WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker because of a back injury.
Hughie, cousin of former division leader Tyson Fury, was set to fight Parker in New Zealand this weekend (May 6) but pulled out last week when it was announced he had been declared “medically unfit” to box.
He is still recovering from his injury, but all signs point to him being back in training soon.
“He’s doing alright. He’s been doing a lot of physio work on the left side of his back, he’s been doing a lot of stretching. He’s doing OK, he’s just lightly ticking over at the moment,” his father and trainer, Peter Fury, told Boxing News.
“He is positive because he’s having total rest, because that’s the advice he’s been given, and the pain has now subsided so he’s responding well to the physio. In the next coming weeks he can start back in the gym and away we go.”
Despite Fury’s withdrawal, Parker will still box this weekend against late substitute Razvan Cojanu, who Parker has spent countless rounds sparring in the past.
Fury remains the WBO mandatory challenger and so his fight with Parker is set to be rescheduled, rather than scrapped altogether.
Peter said: “I think it has to be [rescheduled]. It’s a genuine injury so it’s just a postponement, so we’re looking to get the fight rescheduled.”
Parker is fully expected to retain his title, though he also has his sights set on unification fights against Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder.
Meanwhile, Tyson is in Marbella training alongside WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in a bid to get himself back down to his fighting weight ahead of a potential return to the ring in the coming months.
