I haven't sat down and watched much of Hughie at all. Lots of folks seem to rate him/ like his amateur experience etc. But looking at his record, this seems like a huge step up for him.
In Parker's last ten fights, the worst w/l/d record was Bergman: 25 11 2. That would be one of the better resumes in Hughie's last ten- only Rudenko and Kassi look better on that basis than Parker's worst.
Similarly, Parker KOd everyone but Takam and Ruiz from his last 10 (i.e. Only the 2 top 20 guys made it to the end of the fight). Whereas Hughie has a poor KO record for a HW with 10 KO wins overall out of 20 total. But even that poor ratio looks worse if you dig a bit deeper. He has only KO'd 4 of his last 10. And looking at those 4 guys, it looks like they were all brought in just to keep his numbers up: Hughies last KO was vs Larry Olubamiwo - Hughie's fight was the guys 18th in a row that he'd lost (apart from one case where he'd lucked onto a DQ win). Prior to that: His previous KO was vs Zarate, a guy that had won 18 out of 35 in total, and only 3 of his prior 10 fights. Matthew Greer was the target before that, who had a 16 from 27 ratio going in, but had lost 6 of the prior 10 by KO, & has gone on to be beaten by just about everyone in the division. Geheshidze had won 5 of his previous 10, but all 5 came in with losing records...
I'm no expert, but looks like they have had to try REALLY hard to get ANY KOs on Hughies recent record....
In Parker's last ten fights, the worst w/l/d record was Bergman: 25 11 2. That would be one of the better resumes in Hughie's last ten- only Rudenko and Kassi look better on that basis than Parker's worst.
Similarly, Parker KOd everyone but Takam and Ruiz from his last 10 (i.e. Only the 2 top 20 guys made it to the end of the fight). Whereas Hughie has a poor KO record for a HW with 10 KO wins overall out of 20 total. But even that poor ratio looks worse if you dig a bit deeper. He has only KO'd 4 of his last 10. And looking at those 4 guys, it looks like they were all brought in just to keep his numbers up: Hughies last KO was vs Larry Olubamiwo - Hughie's fight was the guys 18th in a row that he'd lost (apart from one case where he'd lucked onto a DQ win). Prior to that: His previous KO was vs Zarate, a guy that had won 18 out of 35 in total, and only 3 of his prior 10 fights. Matthew Greer was the target before that, who had a 16 from 27 ratio going in, but had lost 6 of the prior 10 by KO, & has gone on to be beaten by just about everyone in the division. Geheshidze had won 5 of his previous 10, but all 5 came in with losing records...
I'm no expert, but looks like they have had to try REALLY hard to get ANY KOs on Hughies recent record....