MAXI Hughes is a man at peace with the cards he has been dealt in boxing. Over a 15-year career, Hughes has experienced the sport’s highs and lows – big wins, tough losses, and one particularly controversial defeat. Often cast as the B-side, he has scratched and clawed his way to world-level, proving his resilience time and again.
Now 35, every fight is pivotal for Hughes. A victory keeps his world title ambitions alive, while a loss could signal the end of his career. As the favourite against Archie Sharp in Doncaster on Friday night, with a WBC ranking belt at stake, Hughes has a chance to break into their top 15. Despite his optimism, he knows Sharp will aim to emulate Hughes’ own underdog triumphs.
“This could bring out the best in him,” he tells Boxing News. “Like, when I fought Jovanni Straffon on the stadium card at Leeds. I was a big underdog, that brought the best out of me. So, we’ve prepared, that this opportunity is going to bring the best version of Archie Sharp, which is what I’d want. So, when I have beaten him, I can go, right, I’ve beat the best version of him.”
Six months ago in Monte Carlo, Hughes delivered a dominant performance against Gary Cully at the Salle des Étoiles, a fight long discussed since 2023. His commanding display, winning decisively on all three scorecards, silenced doubters who had written him off after a bruising loss to William Zepeda and a hard-fought six-round comeback against Efstathios Antonas.
“If you actually broke the Cully fight down beforehand and looked at it from an impartial point of view, I didn’t see why that was happening. This is why promoters are good,” Hughes says.
“I’ve never had what Gary Cully or Archie Sharp’s had. Archie Sharp’s had it a lot in his career. He signed up from the beginning with Frank Warren and had smoke blown up his backside and promoted well and been thrown in the public eye. Same with Cully. It started off on the small halls, but once he got with MTK and Matchroom, they were like, this kid is the next best thing. He was knocking people out, albeit from my point of view, you had to look at the level of the kids he’s knocking out. But the casual fan and the people who make these predictions, who write me off, don’t look at that. So I’m not surprised. The promoter’s done their job.
“Same with Archie Sharp. I know he’s lost his last one, so people are a bit um and ah-ing about him. I’ve been around the game long enough and I’ve got thick enough skin that that doesn’t bother me. Or it certainly doesn’t surprise me that people will look at a record. I remember Curtis Woodhouse back in the day going, ‘Records are for DJs.’ And that’s something that’s always stuck with me. And that’s what I say it is. And they’re like, ‘Oh, but he’s done this, he’s done that.’ I say, ‘All right, yeah, fair enough. But we’ll see on fight night when it’s all said and done how good he is.’
“Against Cully I were confident in my own ability. We were confident of the level that we’ve been at and we’ve performed at. And we said, you know, what we do and what we’ve done will shine through.”
Winning as the away fighter on major promotional cards remains a sweet victory for Hughes. His quiet defiance continues to surprise those who underestimate him, a pattern that has defined his career.
“I’m a pretty quiet guy,” he says, “but it’s a nice place to sit and go, ‘oh, yeah you thought this, you thought that. Look at you now, look at that egg on your face.’ It’s how I’ve always been. Relating it even back to my school days. I was a pretty quiet kid at school and I’ve always been pretty small. So it’s almost like when they say stuff like, ‘Oh, he can’t do that. He’s small or he’s quiet.’ And then you do the same thing and win a race or whatever it’s like, ‘Oh, wow. I didn’t expect that from him.’
“I’m getting a well-known name, I suppose, in the world of boxing. But still, everything, every performance I put in, it still seems to be a surprise to a lot of people. Like, ‘Wow, I didn’t think that.’ How many times do I need to keep proving and keep doing this? I’ve been fighting 15 years. It only feels like yesterday, but going as far back as five years when I had the big upset during COVID against Jono Carroll. I’ve done that a couple of times since then. And people are still surprised five years later that I still do them. “Maybe they’ll appreciate me more when I’ve retired.”
Twelve months ago, Hughes told me he wasn’t ready to commit to a retirement date but mentioned to his wife he might fight for another two years, roughly four or five more bouts. With the Sharp fight approaching, I asked if his outlook has changed.
“She’s trying to hold me to that,” he answered.
“We’ve done a year and two fights so far. Then it’ll be number three fighting Sharp. So that’ll be another fight or two left. It all depends what those fights are. Now, if I get an opportunity like Josh Padley got [against Shakur Stevenson] and a payday like that, then I think that would be very easy for me to go, ‘You know what, love? I’ll turn it in now.’
“My mum is absolutely desperate as well for me to stop. She thinks this is my last one. She’s telling herself this is my last one. But I’m like, ‘No, mum, this is a stepping stone.’ I win this, I’m WBC silver champion, and I’m closer to that world title shot. So it’s not over yet. Again, a year on from now and another two fights in who knows, but I’m still not ready to commit on when that time is going to come.”
