After Maxi Hughes lost to Liam Walsh in a fight for the WBO European Lightweight title in November 2019, he left York Hall in Bethnal Green contemplating whether he’d ever box again.

Hughes had already tried retiring eighteen months earlier, after fighting Sam Bowen for the British Super-Featherweight title. He never became a professional boxer dreaming of winning world titles or earning millions. For his first 31 fights as a pro, he still worked in the building trade. Hughes craved, one day, becoming a British champion. His bout against Bowen was his second chance to fulfil that ambition, but training to make the 9st 4lbs weight limit had been too punishing both physically and mentally. Hughes was dropped twice in the seventh round by body shots before a doctor ruled he was unable to continue due to his right eye swelling shut. His wife was pregnant at the time, and he decided enough was enough. If he was going to support his family it would be on building sites, rather than inside boxing rings.

After six months, Hughes convinced himself he could win again. He stepped up to lightweight, allowing his body an extra 5lbs of leeway. But two fights later he lost by unanimous decision to Walsh, the fifth defeat of his career, and as he set off back to Yorkshire he thought his career was over. Alongside him in the car were fellow boxers Josh Warrington and Reece Mould, and Sean O’Hagan, Warrington’s dad and the trainer of all three fighters.

“Bloody hell, lads. I can’t believe it. I’m done, aren’t I?” Hughes said. “All I wanted to do was win a British title. I’m done.”

That car journey has stuck with Warrington. “It was a sad moment,” he told me last year. “It was only a few minutes of silence, but it felt like fucking hours. It was like, ‘Someone say something, quickly.’ Nobody knew what to say. Then my dad made a bit of a joke and it kind of got swept under the carpet. Maxi came back into the gym and said, ‘I’m going to give it one more go, my grandad would have wanted me to do so.'”

Four years later, Hughes is known as The Cinderella Man. Following the loss to Walsh, he won his next seven fights, from a four rounder in his hometown Doncaster to topping a bill at the Nottingham Arena. He claimed upset after upset, winning the British title by stopping Paul Hyland Jr in March 2021, and could finally quit his day job after beating Jovanni Straffon to win the IBO Lightweight title on Warrington’s undercard at Headingley Stadium.

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