Heavyweight Hughie Fury (7-0, 5 KO’s), the cousin of heavyweight contender Tyson Fury, made easy work of an over-matched 39-year-old Ivica Perkovic (19-21, 14 KO’s) last night by defeating by a 5th round stoppage at the Fairways Hotel in Dundalk, Ireland.
Fury punished Perkovic with hard shots in the 5th round, and the fight was stopped in between rounds before the 6th.
Hughie used his jab and right hand to control the action in one-sided fight. Perkovic covered up mostly, and was limited with what he did on offense. He seemed to be more focused on trying to keep from getting hit rather than attempting to win the fight. Perkovic came into the fight having lost 6 out of his last 8 bouts, so it’s predictable that he wasn’t going to be much of a test for the 6’6” Hughie.
Hughie threw a lot of head shots with his right hand in the first 4 rounds of the fight. However, after realizing that he was getting nowhere in throwing punches to the head, Hughie switched to throwing body shots in the 5th and he really tore into Perkovic in that round.
To his credit, Perkovic was able to take a sustained three minute beating in the 5th and make it to his corner. However, in between rounds the fight was stopped, saving Perkovic from coming out and taking another brutal beating in the 6th.
Hughie looked a lot better in the 5th round than he had in the first four rounds. He was fighting too slowly during those rounds, and not really showing much in the way of punch variety until the 5th. Perkovic didn’t give him a lot of opportunities to counter because he was mostly just covering up and playing defense. This forced Hughie to initiate all the exchanges and force the fight.
Hughie needs to work on his power, left hand and punch variety because he’s lacking in those areas. He has a good jab, but not as good someone like Kubrat Pulev. His power needs a lot of work if he wants to get to the next level. Right now he’s a decent puncher but not in the league of the top heavyweights.