Hughie’s happy to be a travelling man

HUGHIE FURY has never been afraid to go on the road.

So heading for Bulgaria to take on Kubrat Pulev with a shot at IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on the line was not going to give him travel sickness.

Fury is from travelling stock but he took it upon himself to trek across the country as a kid to better himself as a boxer.

While his father Peter – now his trainer – was in prison, Fury would take the train across the Pennines to Yorkshire in search of sparring.

Fury, 24, said: “I used to go to Sheffield, Doncaster, Leeds, all by myself.

“I was only 12 years old and getting the train by myself to go to these places to get training and sparring.

“It was all to make me a better boxer. I was always eager, I didn’t want to stand still so I learned a lot from that. Now it’s time to make all this sacrifice worthwhile.”

Fury boxed away from home many times as an amateur and won the world youth championships in Armenia in 2012.

Risk

He has fought as a pro in America, Canada, Romania, Ireland and Monte Carlo so heading into Pulev’s backyard in Sofia is no trouble to him.

“It doesn’t bother me,” the cousin of former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury said.

“It’s just a different country, but it’s a ring, we both have gloves on and that’s it.”

Fury knows a win tonight will make him IBF mandatory challenger for Joshua, who will be forced to face him in the next 12 months or risk losing one of his world titles.

He came up short when he faced Joseph Parker for the WBO crown just over a year ago as he lost a narrow points decision.

Cries of robbery from his team were over-the-top after a close fight that most neutral observers felt Fury lost, but he responded well to beat Sam Sexton for the British title in July.

Now he is on the verge of another shot at a world title if he can beat Pulev, whose only professional defeat came at the hands of Wladimir Klitschko in 2014.

Fury has said in the past he would be a “nightmare” for Joshua but first he must make sure he secures that dream Battle of Britain.