SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev, known as The Cobra, will make his much-anticipated comeback after an absence of a year and a half in a fight against Briton Hughie Fury in Sofia on Oct. 27.
The fight to decide the challenger for the International Boxing Federation (IBF) world heavyweight title held by Briton Anthony Joshua will be Pulev’s first since April, 2017 when he beat American veteran Kevin Johnson in Sofia.
The IBF has ordered Pulev to face Briton Dillian Whyte and American Jarell Miller to decide a title challenger but the two turned down the fights, angering the Bulgarian.
“Two have refused so far - Whyte and Miller, but Fury has already said no problem and he will play,” the 37-year-old Pulev, who has only one loss in 26 fights, said.
“The date is clear - October 27, the fight will be in Sofia.
“It looks like it’ll be a very interesting game. He is a good, young boxer.”
Hughie Fury is a cousin of ex-world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
Pulev pulled out of fighting Joshua in October, 2017 after suffering a shoulder injury. Joshua, who also holds the WBA, IBO and WBO titles, went on to beat his replacement Carlos Takam.
“I sustained the injury - I’m a man after all, though I’m almost a super man, but now I’m fully recovered,” Pulev said. “This game (against Joshua) will take place, it’s getting near and I have to win.”
Didn't even go to purse bids then? finally just got on with it.
Come the end of October, Pulev will have been out of the ring for 18 months (548 days) and was basically fighting once every 6 months before that. Let's see how much he has aged as a boxer since then.
I hope, this fight will finally happen. If not the time off for aging Pulev, I'd pick him to win. And Hughie is probably developing. So I'm not sure, how it can turn out now.
Tough fight for Pulev. Hughie is a rough style to look good against, let alone beat. Pulev has a superior jab, but Hughie is a lot faster and more athletic. 60-40 in favor of Pulev for me. Could very well be a close fight.
Mexi-Box wrote: ↑11 Aug 2018, 06:27
Tough fight for Pulev. Hughie is a rough style to look good against, let alone beat. Pulev has a superior jab, but Hughie is a lot faster and more athletic. 60-40 in favor of Pulev for me. Could very well be a close fight.
I have to agree. I think Pulev is a slight favorite.
I also think this will be a boring fight that us hard to score
I'm not overly excited by this. Independently I like both boxers, but based on Hughie' s style, and Pulev's inactivity, it's set out to be a long night.
18 months at his age is a significant amount of time to be inactive, so I suspect a level of performance something like Stiverne, when he fought Wilder the second time. Both fighters will still be irrelevant if they win, although I'm sure the IBF will inflate their ranking status to be relevant in that governing body.
I'll go SD for Pulev because he's home, followed by wild complaints by the Fury camp.
I really don't think so. Why take the fight if he's not intending to go through with it ... unless of course you think they can reschedule it for England, maybe on YouTube PPV.
