Hughie Fury continues the road to world level as he returns against Christian Hammer

Following the success of his heralded cousin just a week ago, Hughie Fury will look to further his own career as he takes on experienced gatekeeper Christian Hammer. 

Hughie Fury graced the professional scene at the incredibly young age of 18, and whilst his success may not be on the same level as Tyson Fury’s, he has a good few years left in his career.

Sitting on a record of 25-3, Fury’s three losses have all come against world-class opposition in the form of Joseph Parker, Kubrat Pulev and Alexander Povetkin. Whilst a number of those scorecards were somewhat wide, Fury was not disgraced in any of those fights and even had a card scored 114-114 in his clash with Parker. 

Since losing arguably his biggest test to date back in the summer of 2019 against Alexander Povetkin, COVID-19 and other factors have reduced ‘The Fist of Fury’ to relative inactivity, with this being only his third fight in almost 26 months.

That being said, Fury did put in a pretty impressive performance against experienced Polish boxer Mariusz Wach in his last outing. 

There is a tremendous card scheduled including Savannah Marshall, Lewis Ritson and Chris Eubank Jr as well as a host of North East prospects. Here is what you can expect from the BOXXER Promotions event in Newcastle on Saturday evening.

April Hunter (4-0-0) v Kirstie Bavington (4-2-2) – Welterweight Division

Local Welterweight April Hunter appears on the card with what is expected to be a four-rounder against Wolverhampton’s Kirstie Bavington.

Since debuting in 2019, Hunter has shown herself to be a slick and effective boxer despite not showing all of her attributes as of yet. Following a scare in her third professional outing against Elsa Hemat, she bounced back with a comfortable victory over well-travelled Klaudia Vigh.

However, this fight offers a sizeable step up in class early in the 26-year-old’s professional career as she has only previously fought fighters with heavy losing records, whereas Bavington arrives in Newcastle with four wins under her belt with two defeats and two draws.

Most of Bavington’s wins have come from the Midlands small hall scene but her two defeats both came against top prospects in the form of Cherrelle Brown and Sandy Ryan. As a result, this fight should offer a stern test to Hunter, particularly over four rounds where there is so little room for error. 

Georgia O’Connor (0-0-0) v TBA – Super Welterweight Division 

Durham-born Georgia O’Connor is set to make her professional bow on this Saturday’s show. O’Connor has had tremendous success at the amateur level in the youth ranks, winning gold in the Commonwealth Youth Games as well as a silver and a bronze in the World Youth Championships.

Unfortunately, illness and other factors rather stunted her amateur success at the senior level. However, at just 21 years of age, an opportunity at the professional game offers a massive opportunity to get ahead of the game with so much time to progress. That being said, a lack of senior amateur experience will mean that CEO and Founder of BOXXER Promotions, Ben Shalom, will have to take his time with O’Connor’s opponents. 

Mark Dickinson (0-0-0) v TBA – Middleweight Division 

Mark Dickinson is another debutant with great success at amateur youth levels that hasn’t carried over into the senior amateur ranks.

A former Commonwealth and European youth gold medalist, Dickinson failed to make the desired impact at the senior amateur level with a number of early exits in competitions.

This Saturday, Dickinson will make his professional debut in front of the Newcastle crowd. His former opponent was the Slovakian Michal Gazdik, but that deal fell through and his new opponent has not been disclosed by BOXXER. 

Steve Robinson (3-0-0) v Reece Barlow (0-1-0) – Heavyweight Division 

The next bout takes fans into the land of the giants, as Newcastle’s very own Steve Robinson looks to move to 4-0 as he takes on Reece Barlow.

At such an early stage in his career, Robinson has already gained some valuable sparring with none other than Anthony Joshua and will be looking to use that to his advantage as he takes on a fellow novice pro.

Robinson had no problem knocking out his first two opponents in the opening round back in 2019 but looked lethargic in his most recent performance against well-travelled journeyman Phil Williams.

After over 18 months of inactivity, Robinson returns against Barlow who recently debuted himself against promising prospect George Fox on a straightforward points decision. Robinson will look to make a statement after such a long time out in his comeback fight in front of his home fans. 

Micheal Webster (6-0-0) v Jone Volau (5-6-0) – Cruiserweight Division 

Middlesbrough-born Micheal Webster looks to go 7-0 in the cruiserweight division as he faces Jone Volau. Debuting back in 2019, Webster has progressed well at this stage of his career, getting some key rounds in with his first two fights and making some impressive statements with stoppages in his last three outings.

Volau is a Fijian native who has been welcomed with open arms Gateshead and Newcastle area and is seen as a cult hero. Whilst his record won’t turn too many heads, it is certain that he will not be an easy fight for Webster.

The ‘Brown Bomber’ has faced some decent fighters already and will be looking to win in front of a crowd that will likely cheer him on. 

Bradley Rea (10-0-0) v Jez Smith (13-3-1) – Middleweight Division 

Bradley “The Sting” Rea has proved to be one of the more exciting prospects in the domestic middleweight division, and whilst his record largely consists of wins over lesser opponents, his most recent outing against previously unbeaten small hall fighter Lee Cutler really put Rea into the eyes of the public.

It is not so much the 13 victories on Jez Smith’s resume that will turn the heads of many, but more so the calibre of opponent he has touched gloves with for his losses and draw.

Smith earned a very impressive draw against Macaulay McGowan back in 2016, before losing against Samuel Antwi, Caoimhin Agyarko and most recently Kerman Lejarraga.

It is worth pointing out that Smith was stopped in all of these fights but he was far from disgraced in any of them. Rea will have to come up with his best performance yet to protect his unbeaten professional record against a very solid fighter. 

Lewis Ritson (21-2-0) v Hank Lundy (31-9-1) – Super-Lightweight Division 

Along with Savannah Marshall, this fight will certainly be the one that the Newcastle natives will be most passionately invested in.

After being comprehensively beaten in his step up to the world stage against Jeremias Ponce, this fight signifies the start of a rebuild job for ‘The Sandman’.

Ritson has shown excellent boxing and a good amount of power over the years, but at 28, he has been found out to be short of world level in the Super-Lightweight division.

Hank Lundy at 37 years of age, provides a vastly experienced opponent who may well be in the autumn of his career but has very much fought at the world level. Back in 2013, Lundy ran Viktor Postol to a close points decision, before years later stepping in the ring with Terence Crawford.

Despite accumulating a few more losses at the tail end of his career, Lundy has shown he can still beat good fighters, earning a points win over Ezequiel Victor Fernandez back in 2020. 

On paper, this is a good test for Ritson, albeit one he should be passing. It is imperative that Ritson gets in there and makes a statement upon his comeback from only the second loss of his career.

Ponce showed Ritson that he still has a way to go to get to the world level but Ritson still has time to make the adjustments. The Newcastle faithful will be baying for blood after being silenced by the Argentine’s masterful performance back in June. 

Chris Eubank Jr (30-2-0) v Wanik Awdijan (28-1-0) – Middleweight Division 

The past few weeks have been frustrating for Eubank Jr, having had two opponents pull out in quick succession causing this fight to be hastily rearranged for the Newcastle show.

It has been well documented that the COVID-19 pandemic stunted Eubank Jr’s career, and back in May, he made his long-awaited return after 17 months out of the ring. His performance against decent level English fighter Marcus Morrison was described by many as a snooze fest, but ultimately it was about getting the rounds in after a long hiatus for Eubank Jr.

With Roy Jones Jr in his corner, it’s clear Eubank Jr is playing no games and still has dreams of making it to the very top. Due to a lack of depth as well as domination from the likes of Gennady Golovkin and Demetrius Andrade, Eubank Jr is still ranked very highly in the Middleweight division by most organisations.

This fight will be utilised as an opportunity to make a statement before driving up the level of opponent as he strides towards another potential world title shot.

As for his opponent, very little is actually known about Wanik Awdijan. Born in Armenia but based in Germany, Awdijan has racked up an impressive 28-1 record on the European circuit.

However, if you scratch beneath the surface you’ll see that the calibre of opponent he has been in with greatly reduces the stature of this record. That being said, Eubank Jr will still need to be somewhat wary as bar one loss Awdijan has only known winning up until now, but this should be a huge gulf in class.

Savannah Marshall (10-0-0) v Lolita Muzeya (16-0-0) – WBO Women’s Middleweight Championship Match

Hartlepool-born Savannah Marshall has accepted herself into Newcastle as much as they have accepted her as one of their own.

Making her second world title defence, Marshall steps up to face her toughest opponent yet. Standing at 16-0, Lolita Muzeya has built up a good run of wins on the African scene, albeit against somewhat mediocre opponents.

Muzeya will pose a slightly unknown entity for Marshall as the Zambian knows nothing but winning but has never stepped in the ring with anyone of the 30-year-old’s calibre.

Marshall will look to put on a show for what is guaranteed to be a raucous and partisan crowd. Everything will point towards the Claressa Shields fight, but due to certain controversies, whether or not that will happen is as yet unknown so all Marshall can do is continue to defend her WBO title until she is told otherwise. 

Hughie Fury (25-3-0) v Christian Hammer (26-7-0) – Heavyweight Division 

Just seven days have passed since Hughie Fury’s cousin Tyson Fury defended his WBC and Ring Magazine title belts in a blockbuster trilogy fight against Deontay Wilder.

For Hughie Fury, he will of course be delighted for his cousin, but his focus will be on progressing his own career to hopefully get to a similar level at some point.

‘The Fist of Fury’ has taken a rather different path in his career, and has taken a number of very big fights at a very young age. At 27 and with three defeats to his name, it is time for him to hone in on fighting and remaining at world level to putting himself in the conversation for a world title. 

His opponent is no stranger to the Fury family after Christian Hammer fought Tyson Fury back in 2015 in a final eliminator for Wladimir Klitschko’s world title.

Tyson Fury was dominant as he boxed to his strengths and categorically wiped the floor with Hammer to stop him in eight rounds. This, of course, set up the fight that arguably put ‘The Gypsy King’ on the map as one of the greatest heavyweights of this generation.

During press conferences, Hammer has conceded that Hughie Fury is a very good fighter, but has also said “he’s a Fury, but he is no Tyson”.

Since that fight, Hammer has gone 12 rounds with Povetkin as well as being on the wrong end of wide scorecard losses to Luis Ortiz and Tony Yoka. Hammer’s most impressive victory since the Tyson Fury fight probably came against then-unbeaten German prospect Micheal Wallisch, of whom he disposed of in five rounds. 

Hughie Fury is currently ranked 18th in the world, and although this is a fight that he should realistically win, it offers another stepping stone to a bigger fight against a fighter who is perhaps on the verge of breaking into the top 10.

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