Kubrat Pulev pulled off the big win at home in Bulgaria.
It wasn’t particularly pretty, but Kubrat Pulev (26-1, 13 KOs) once again punched his dance ticket to become three belt heavyweight star Anthony Joshua’s mandatory challenger through the IBF by comfortably outpointing Hughie Fury (21-2, 11 KOs) at home in Bulgaria. The country didn’t play into the cards, however, which came back very fair.
Unfortunately, the fight itself was pretty dull. That was predictable coming into the ESPN+ broadcast at least though. For all of Tyson’s antics, neither Fury provides a whole lot of fireworks in terms of in ring action. Hughie can be especially tedious to watch with his lunging in for clinches. Pulev isn’t exactly an action star in there either. This was never going to be an exciting fight.
Kubrat landed a stiff jab in the second that opened a nice cut over Fury’s eye that he had to contend with the rest of the way. Post fight the British man said it really bothered him too, basically attributing the loss to his obscured vision. To me it seemed more like he lost because he’s not a particularly good fighter, but I guess I’ll have to take his word for it. Hughie did briefly wobble Pulev in the eighth, but he never really pursued the finish and went on to lose a wide decision. The official cards read 118-110, 117-109, and a too close 115-113 in favor of the Bulgarian.
With the win Pulev is in line to meet Anthony Joshua for a shot at his belts. That won’t end well for the 37 year old. Kubrat is a good fighter, don’t get me wrong, but he is never going to compete with a younger, more dynamic athlete over the twelve round distance. AJ is just far too much for him physically. Its too bad their first meeting never happened as scheduled when Pulev pulled out late due to injury so we could be past this one already. It should be noted that the Bulgarian did put in the work here to show up at his lowest weight since 2010 though. He’s at least taking the title run quite seriously.
