Maxi Hughes explains exactly why he left Matchroom
Lightweight contender, Maxi Hughes, has opened up on his decision to leave Matchroom Boxing almost 12 months ago, in a move that helped manufacture his fight with former unified world champion, George Kambosos in the States.
Lightweight star Maxi Hughes’ career took a turn for the best when he won the British title and then the IBO world title in 2021, before defeating Ryan Walsh and then Kid Galahad in a monumental 2022 for the 33-year-old.
However, Hughes then left Matchroom Boxing and landed a fight with Aussie star Kambosos, where he was extremely unfortunate to not get the nod from the judges.
On his YouTube channel, the Yorkshireman explained the reasoning behind the decision.
“The new contract came in February of 2023, and it felt like a massive kick in the b***ocks. The first fight of the contract had to be against Gary Cully in Ireland, in his back garden, and I just thought that I’d worked way too hard for this, to fight somebody who’s well beneath me. I’d cleared up domestically, I was on the top of the tree and had been for a while, I’d been around a while and had done my apprenticeship.”
“I was told by Matchroom that this was the only fight that they could make, there was nobody else in the lightweight division who they could make, and I just didn’t believe that, I wasn’t satisfied with that. So, living by the mantra of ‘if you want something doing, go and do it yourself’, I was out of contract at this point and I had not signed anything, so I was free to explore things for myself and that’s exactly what I did.”
“So I signed with Lou DiBella and I felt at that time that was the best move for my career, it has opened up the door to fight in America.”
Now Hughes is preparing for another stateside outing, where he hopes for fairer judging, taking on undefeated WBA number one contender, William Zepeda, on March 16th.