There are two ways to take Tommy Fury's professional debut.
Pessimists will be disappointed by the fact that the much-hyped younger brother of Tyson Fury failed to find a finish when it looked on during his first trip through the ropes as a pro.
But trainer Ricky Hatton will be thrilled with the maturity shown by his latest charge as Fury refused to succumb to the temptation to head-hunt against opponent Jevgenijs Andrejevs, instead focusing on getting rounds under his belt.
Andrejevs was, in truth, no more than a punching bag and he was selected for that reason, having lost over 100 of his fights to date.
Credit to the Latvian as he withstood some crushing pressure from Fury but saw out the four rounds by intelligently holding and surviving the onslaught.
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Big things are expected of Fury, who fights in the light heavyweight division, not only because of his surname but because of the preparation he's put in with Hatton in his Manchester gym.
In the build-up to the bout, Hatton made it clear that he would be more content with Fury paying attention to his corner instructions than a devastating early knockout.
Andrejevs was never going to be an opponent against whom we could get an accurate gauge of Fury's ability but the 19-year-old can only fight who is in front of him and with the first fight out of the way, we can expect the level of competition to steadily increase as promoter Frank Warren builds his profile.
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