Unbeaten highly touted prospect Hughie Fury (19-0, 10 KOs) of the United Kingdom will be featured in the main event tonight. It will be a major step up for Fury as he meets U.S. based African Fred Kassi (18-4-1, 10 KOs). The 12 round bout will take place at the Copper Box Arena, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Hackney Wick, London, England. The two will square off for the vacant WBO International heavyweight title. The show will be promoted by Frank Warren (Queensberry Promotions). WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders was scheduled to be the original main event defending against Max Bursak. A hand injury suffered by Saunders forced him to pull out of the fight.
It’s hard to imagine that someone 6′ 6″ could be in the shadows but this is literally and figuratively speaking for Fury. His older cousin is 6′ 9″ unified heavyweight champion of the world Tyson Fury. The other part of this is the huge personality of Tyson. He is very outspoken and quite entertaining with his antics outside the ring. In the meantime Hughie has steadily been moving along with his career and is only 21 years of age entering his 20th fight tonight.
Kassi could prove to be a very tough task for Fury. He has performed well of late stepping up against decent competition. He held former two time world title challenger Chris Arreola to a draw last year. Many viewers felt that Kassi deserved the nod in the fight. This will be the first time that he will be the headliner on such a big event. It’s a major opportunity for Fury. If he can win impressively versus Kassi he could perhaps be the Fury garnering the attention even if only for a night.
