MAXI HUGHES: FROM PAINTING HIS HOME STADIUM, TO FIGHTING INSIDE IT
Over the past two years, Maxi Hughes has been on something of a world tour.
An outstanding run of form led the lightweight into world class and across the Atlantic. He boxed former unified and Ring Magazine champion George Kambosos, in Oklahoma before then travelling to Las Vegas, Nevada to take on unbeaten Mexican contender William Zepeda. Last December, he travelled to the south of France and beat Gary Cully in the beautiful Principality of Monaco.
This weekend, the 35-year-old gets a home fixture. On Friday night, Hughes (28-7-2, 6 KOs) boxes Archie Sharp (25-1, 9 KOs) at Doncaster's EcoPower Stadium, less than a ten minute drive from the village he grew up in.
"Oh, yeah, it's brilliant. I've got familiar with the stadium as well," Hughes told The Ring.
"I've been going up there quite a lot with media. The running track I use is on the premises as well so it's special and as much as I've been all over the world, it's nice to do it at home.
"I worked for my uncle's company on the tools, painting. He's a local Doncaster firm so about 12 years ago, in and around the stadium where there's some breeze block walls, they all needed painting and I got the job.
"So I've actually worked on the stadium as a painter, getting it looking all smart."
Hughes is returning home on the back of an important win.
In July 2023, he put in a good performance against Kambosos and was extremely unlucky to lose a majority decision and his IBO title. The fourth-round stoppage loss to Zepeda last March was difficult to deal with, for far different reasons. Hughes' preparations were destroyed by terrible visa issues and he was then taken apart in four one-sided rounds.
He righted the ship by outclassing the dangerous Cully as the away fighter on Matchroom's December 14 bill in Monte-Carlo. From the outside, the dominant ten-round decision victory with a trio of 100-90 scorecards looked like a smooth return to form.
"A lot of people say that, but for me, it wasn't," Hughes said.
"I had absolutely terrible preparation for that. It's a good experience to tick off but I had a chest and ear infection. The worry was that if I pulled out, I wouldn't get another opportunity so was like, "Right, I've got enough in me and in the locker to beat Cully."
"Sean [O'Hagan, his trainer] wouldn't let me come to the gym because we had other lads fighting and I didn't want to pass the virus on so, I did a lot by myself in my garage. I've got a punch bag in there and some space to do some exercises so was just beasting myself in a garage.
"I remember I kept saying, "If this doesn't go, I'm going to have to pull out."
"I did about three or four weeks. It wasn't good but I stuck with it. I kept disciplined on the diet and didn't feel sorry for myself.
"All I kept telling myself was, "I'll be alright" and then obviously I pulled it out. That was a 60% Maxi."
Hughes hasn't picked an easy touch for his homecoming.
Sharp is a career junior-lightweight but elected to move up to the 135lb division after losing his undefeated record on points against current European champion Ryan Garner (17-0, 8 KOs) last year. Sharp was a staple in the higher reaches of the WBO world rankings for years and, aged 30, looks likely to benefit from the additional five pounds.
Sharp is aware Hughes will pose the toughest challenge of his career but the world-ranked Yorkshireman also represents the type of test he has craved for years.
Hughes knows exactly how Sharp will be feeling and wonders how he will cope as the days and hours tick down to the first bell.
"He was the fourth choice, to be honest. I'll not say the other names but the name that was public was Josh Padley. We actually started negotiations with him before he got the Shakur Stevenson fight," Hughes said.
"We felt we needed a domestic opponent to sell it. So that's what we did. We were looking at global names and European names, but it's an hard sell so we sort of went down the list of the UK rankings and Archie Sharp was looking for a fight so we offered it to him. It's his first one at lightweight so he jumped at the chance.
"I've been there myself where you're an underdog and you're in the biggest night of your career. I've actually been in a few but, for me, the Jovanni Straffon [UD12] fight at Headingley Stadium was a big opportunity and that brought the best out of me.
"Whether it'll do that to Archie, we'll see. It could do that or he could fold under the pressure. We don't know yet, because he's not had this sort of test or fight so there's a lot of unanswered questions around him but we'll see.
"I'm expecting and I'm preparing for the best version of him.”
Should Hughes get past Sharp, he will once again set his mind on securing a shot at a major world title before calling time on his career.
The WBC, WBA and IBF all rank him inside their respective top-15 divisional ratings and the winner of this Friday's fight will leave the ring with the WBC silver title.
Rather than waiting for his name to be called, Hughes is determined to do all he can to force the issue.
"The reason I kept pestering the promoters for this belt is that Dalton Smith obviously won it and defended it and he's been made mandatory so that's the path I want to go,” he said.
"If I'm not going to get that life-changing opportunity like Padley, I'm going to have to earn it and get made mandatory so I can't be ignored."
