Trainer pleased with Fury's progress

Boxrec News Ben Carey10th March, 2010

Trainer Brian Hughes has admitted he was pleased with Tyson Fury's performance against Germany's Hans-Joerg Blasko in Huddersfield last Friday. Fury, appearing alongside Hughes in his corner for the first time, floored Blasko twice en-route to registering a first-round stoppage to advance to 10-0 (8).

"Considering he hadn't fought for six months I thought Tyson did very well. He was too powerful, and had he caught Blasko with some of the punches he was practicing beforehand the German would have been plastered to the walls," began Hughes.

"He still got caught with a couple of silly shots which was frustrating because we've been working on improving his defence which is the main area where we need to bring him on. We've had him sparring cruiserweights and middleweights in the gym who have been throwing punches at him and Tyson has not been allowed to hit them back. This is to try and get him to concentrate on his defence."

"There were a lot of people hanging around Tyson while he was warming-up for Blasko which could have distracted him. We moved to a quiet corner towards the back of the sports hall to help him to focus and this is something we'll be addressing the next time he fights," admitted Hughes.

Hughes recently took Fury on what he described as a 'make or break' sparring mission to Germany and was delighted with how the heavyweight prospect responded.

"I was really pleased with him and was impressed by how good he was. He sparred some quality European heavyweights over seven-days and handled himself really well against (Finland's unbeaten) Robert Helenius who stopped Scott Gammer and (former world champion) Lamon Brewster in his last fight."

The outspoken Fury has been labelled arrogant by some onlookers who are keen to see the Manchester giant brought back down to size. Hughes was full of praise though for Fury's attitude.

"I used to think that too (that Fury is arrogant) but having now worked with him I've changed my mind. I was surprised to discover that he carries a gold bible around with him. He had it with him while we were in Germany and he read a different passage each day. He's also established himself as a very popular figure in the gym (Collyhurst & Moston) and all the lads take the mickey out of him and say he looks like the giant out of Jack and the Beanstalk."

Fury is expected to have one more fight before his 22 May rematch with John McDermott for the English crown, possibly on the undercard of Audley Harrison's European heavyweight title bid on 9 April.