How a car ride with Josh Warrington saved Maxi Hughes’ boxing career

Maxi Hughes thought he was done with boxing when then-featherweight world champion Josh Warrington brought him back from London on November 9, 2019. Hughes had just lost a unanimous decision to Liam Walsh and was regretfully considering retirement .

During the 170-mile journey to Yorkshire, UK, Hughes wondered if he would ever be good enough. He contemplated life after hanging up his gloves. It was his third defeat in six fights and Hughes told Warrington he thought it was time to commit fully to his day job as a painter and decorator.

“Josh was driving me back from London, my coach Sean O'Hagan was asleep,” Hughes recalled to ESPN. But I was saying I didn't think I was good enough to win the British title. I thought I was done with boxing. But that talk cleared my head.

“By the end of the trip, I had sorted it out in my head.”

Hughes said he needed someone he admired and learned to listen to him from. Warrington was that man. Hughes had also seen up close how Warrington reached the summit.

“If anyone wants to talk about mindset or tough times, Maxi has shown time and time again that it's not over until you say it,” Warrington told the Yorkshire Post. “I remember him coming back from London when he lost to Liam Walsh. Maxi was retired. It was hard to hear him talk about that.”

Over the next four years, Hughes transformed his boxing career from a struggle to a steady progression. Sixteen months after Hughes doubted his abilities, he was British champion and reassessing what he believed he could achieve in boxing.

Hughes' story is one of resilience, determination and effort. It took Hughes (26-6-2, 5 KOs) 12 years to establish himself as a world title contender. On Saturday, the Englishman will face Mexican William Zepeda (29-0, 25 KO) in an eliminator fight for the IBF and WBA lightweight world titles at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.

Hughes got to this point by overcoming a series of setbacks, challenges and a lack of confidence. The 34-year-old has suffered six defeats during his journey to the top, the last of which was a controversial majority decision loss to Australian George Kambosos Jr, the former world champion, in July 2023. But it was the loss to Walsh in 2019 that proved to be the turning point in a slow career.

“I always had that ability, but I was better in the gym, away from the pressure and bright lights of the arena,” Hughes said. “I couldn't integrate what I did in the gym into the fight. I just collapsed under the pressure. I remember the Scott Cardle fight, and I was like, don't do anything stupid in your first fight on television, it was the “I was afraid of failure, and I just didn’t perform. The pressure was getting to me. “

But since Hughes joined forces with Warrington's father O'Hagan as full-time coach in 2019, things have been different.

“[O’Hagan] has a way of getting the best out of me, we manage each other very well,” Hughes said. “That coupled with all the experience I've had in boxing, what I've learned from defeats and sucks, and also being wiser in life, it all came together.”

Hughes said he got this far by sticking to his hard work, and seeing Warrington fight his way to a world title kept him going.

“I always thought I was going to be the closest man, without ever winning a British title,” Hughes said. “Once I got the victory over Jono Carroll [unanimous decision in 2020], who had fought for the world title the year before, I started to believe it. It was a great moment, for which all the hard work paid off.”

Then, after Hughes defeated Jovanni Straffon in September 2021, he said he was able to pack up his job as a painter and decorator and focus full-time on boxing because he had secured sponsorship through to this victory.

“Being a full-time boxer has helped me with family life, I have two young children and I am able to live the life of a professional boxer,” Hughes said.

Hughes continued: “It's not a very nice place to be when you lose, I discovered through experiences how resilient I was and how hungry I was for success in boxing. I always wanted to be British champion, but after winning the British title [with an eighth round stoppage victory over Paul Hyland in March 2021], that wasn't enough for me and I set new goals for myself. I want the life-changing money, the big title fights. They tried to take me out against Kambosos with that decision and if I had been less resilient then I could have left boxing. But it proved to me that I was at this level and I'm going to prove it against Zepeda.

“There are a lot of different stories in boxing. I just read Andre Ward's book about his career and OK, he finished undefeated, he had a perfect career, but those kinds of stories are rare. My defeats developed me, I had to answer questions and they showed me how strong I was. Everyone knows who should have won between me and Kambosos, luckily I'm back in a big fight and I’m going to make sure this situation doesn’t happen again.”

Hughes will be an underdog against Zepeda, which is what he is used to. But in his last fight, Hughes showed he wasn't intimidated by boxing on the big stage.

“I know what’s coming with Zepeda, I just feel like I have a little more experience,” Hughes said. “His two hardest fights were [Joseph] “JoJo Diaz” and René Alvarado, they both gave him good fights. I bring something he’s never seen before.”