Nina Hughes: “There are three of us showing we want to fight each other and go for undisputed. Ebanie is the only missing piece of the puzzle, the one that is holding it all up.”

Nina Hughes: “There are three of us showing we want to fight each other and go for undisputed. Ebanie is the only missing piece of the puzzle, the one that is holding it all up.”

By Matt Elliott

When Nina Hughes signed her first professional contract in late 2021, if you had asked her to map out the next eighteen months, then even in her wildest dreams she would have been hard-pressed to predict what she has achieved in such a short space of time. When I spoke with Hughes in November of last year, it was two weeks before her world title fight with Jamie Mitchell. Fast forward eight months, and Hughes now holds the WBA bantamweight belt, has signed a promotional deal with Matchroom, made her first successful defence, and is now targeting a unification fight with Ebanie Bridges.

As I caught up with her via Zoom this past week, I started by asking her about that fight with Mitchell, which saw her achieve her lifetime ambition and overcome the odds to be crowned WBA champion in just her fifth professional outing.  

“The whole experience was brilliant. Getting to go to Dubai, somewhere I have never been before, to fight for a world title, I was just really excited and took the opportunity with both hands. It was weird to be honest as it was the first time in my career that I had no nerves; all day I was thinking why am I not getting nervous, this isn’t right, I was worrying myself as to why I felt so relaxed. I remember being in the changing room, and my team was like, “You don’t look as if you are about to go and fight for a world title.” It was strange, but we had trained so hard for that fight. I had only boxed six weeks prior, and we were confident we could get the win. It all went to plan, thankfully.”

Despite being for a world title, it was a fight that largely flew under the radar back in the UK. Taking place overseas and not being picked up by a major broadcaster, coupled with the fact it fell on the same night as fights for Dillian Whyte and John Ryder, Hughes was able to go about her business in relative calm. I wondered whether that had helped her preparations. 

“Yes maybe. I didn’t have any pressure on me, I had everything to gain and nothing to lose, whereas, in my first defence, I had a lot more pressure on me as I was the champion. Being away from home, there wasn’t a lot of publicity, and no one was really giving me a chance. Everyone was expecting me to lose. The night before the fight, I was looking at the polls on social media, and everyone was backing me to lose, and I think that drove me further and gave me even more determination to prove everyone wrong.” 

The underdog going into the fight, Hughes put in a solid performance to take a unanimous points decision with scores of 96-94 (x2) and 97-93. Despite suffering a cut in the middle rounds, which caused her to adapt her game plan, she recalls being confident that she had done enough to have her hand raised. 

“The first round was close, and I’d probably give her that one, then from the second onwards, I was just chipping away and doing enough to win them. Then I got cut in the sixth and again in the seventh, and that altered the plan as I felt she was targeting the cut. We didn’t know whether it was deemed to be a punch or a clash of heads, so we were worried about it getting stopped, so we had to change tactics and box on the back foot. She probably nicked a couple of rounds at that point, but I was still having a lot of success and was picking her off. So, whilst we had to change things, I was confident I was winning most of the rounds. When the decision was announced, it was a case of everything I had ever dreamed of had finally come true.”  

One of the contractual conditions of a victory for Hughes was the option for Matchroom to sign her to a promotional deal, and a few weeks later, that was formally announced. With Matchroom having the largest stable of female fighters, it was an opportunity Hughes was delighted to be presented with as she seeks to land the big fights. It did not take long for her first defence to be announced, a clash with Shannon Courtenay, which was set to land on the undercard of Sunny Edwards’ Matchroom debut on June 10. Unfortunately, Courtenay pulled out a few weeks before fight night, something which Hughes had always feared would be the case.

“It was always in the back of my mind that the fight wouldn’t happen. I was quite surprised when it got made in the first place, to be honest, but when it did I was like great, she does want the fight, but deep down I always had a feeling she would pull out last minute with an illness or injury, or not make the weight. In the end, that was what happened. I’ve heard she is now training up in Liverpool, so she hasn’t had the operation on her knee that was supposedly the reason she pulled out of the fight.” 

Thankfully for Hughes, the withdrawal of Courtenay did not derail her first defence, and the fight went ahead with the undefeated Katie Healy stepping up to take her place. Hughes’ class shone through on the night in what turned out to be a one-sided affair.

“With doubts over Shannon, we had a list of names in reserve, so when she pulled out, we just wanted to fight, and they looked at options and who was the most sellable opponent. I had been training for eight weeks, so you don’t want all that to be for nothing, so I am grateful to Katie for stepping in. She was undefeated, and with her being British as well, it’s always good to have a domestic fight, so I think that’s why they went with her as the opponent. It was a good fight, and I was pleased to get my first defence out of the way.”

Post-fight, Hughes was asked who she wanted next, and there was no surprise when she called out the current IBF champion Ebanie Bridges. The Australian was sat ringside providing commentary for DAZN and seemed to indicate her willingness to make that fight after firstly taking a voluntary defence. With both women represented by Matchroom, it should be an easy fight to make, but in the weeks that have followed, doubts have crept in, something which has seen Hughes turn to social media to call out her rival and vent her frustrations. An unusual move for the normally laid-back Hughes, she explained her rationale. 

“I don’t normally call people out as I can’t be bothered with all of that, but in this situation, it’s just frustration as I want the big fights. Shannon was a big fight, and that fell through, but I had my voluntary, and Ebanie deserves hers. I always knew she wanted a voluntary first, but then we wanted the unification fight next. Now we are getting told she wants two voluntaries and I’m thinking why do you need two? Since she won the IBF title, all she has been talking about is unifying and becoming undisputed and that she’s the Queen of the Division. I only started on social media after she did an interview and said it’s an easy fight to make and that she would beat me and I think if you are that confident in beating me, why would you not have your voluntary and then take the fight?”

The bantamweight division is finely poised at present, with the holders of the WBC and WBO titles, Yulihan Luna and Dina Thorslund, scheduled to fight in September. This adds to Hughes’ frustrations as the path to undisputed is set, but it needs all champions to come to the table. 

“There are not many divisions where it’s that easy to make an undisputed fight, but there are three of us showing we want to fight each other and go for undisputed. Ebanie is the only missing piece of the puzzle, the one that is holding it all up. The other two champions are fighting in September and with me and Ebanie in the same country, under the same promoter, if we meet then it sets up a massive undisputed fight for next year, but I think she thinks she can just pick and choose who she fights and that she has all the say in everything. I will probably get a mandatory next, and Ebanie’s is close to being ordered as well (Seren Cetin). The only thing that overrides that is unification. So, it’s one of them, would you rather fight a mandatory that no one is interested in or unify.” 

Hughes expects an announcement about her next fight to land shortly, with the opponent to be confirmed and the fight date likely to land in October or November. Whilst she remains hopeful that an agreement can be reached with Bridges to fight at the beginning of 2024, she admits she may need to explore alternative options. One consideration would be to directly target the winner of Luna and Thorslund.

“Obviously the ideal route is for both fighters to go into an undisputed clash with two belts each. It makes it a fairer match in terms of belts and money as well. Depending on what Ebanie ends up doing, though, we will target the other route if we have to. My manager Lee (Eaton) also represents Dina, so if she is victorious, that is potentially an easy fight to make.”

I concluded our conversation by asking Hughes about a recent post on social media where she questioned the logic of boxers who avoid the big fights in order to prolong a title run or an undefeated record. This is something that resonated with me as it is a longstanding frustration of many boxing fans, highlighted more than ever by the ongoing saga between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, another fight that many thought was easily achievable, only for it to fall apart when negotiations intensified. Hughes was keen to point out her belief that boxers should want to test themselves at the highest levels and not be fearful of failure when attempting to achieve greatness.   

“People are too scared of losing. I have never said I would beat everyone and be the best in the division, but I want the opportunity to try. I want the opportunity to fight for unification and hopefully win and then fight for undisputed. That has always been the goal, but until you try, you don’t know, and win, lose, or draw, I don’t think there should be any shame in that. If you lose, then at least you know you’ve tried, and you’ve fought the best out there.” 

Photo Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing