Nina Hughes: “If that’s the end, then that’s the end. But if there is another big fight out there, I would take it.”     

Nina Hughes: “If that’s the end, then that’s the end. But if there is another big fight out there, I would take it.”     

“I keep beating myself up because everything I practised in the gym I didn’t do in the fight.” The opening words of Nina Hughes just a few days removed from her unsuccessful attempt to regain her WBA world bantamweight title in Sydney, Australia, against the fighter she lost it to last year.

Cherneka Johnson retained her title when the Hughes corner threw in the towel in the 7th round that ended her challenge and perhaps even her career.

“If you boxed well and you lost, at least you have done everything you can,” a clearly disappointed and frustrated Hughes told me over Zoom. “I still feel I can beat her, but I just didn’t box well.”

The first fight in May last year was incredibly competitive and controversial, but the rematch was, in truth, anything but. Hughes told me the fight started to go wrong more or less from the start. An overly fussy referee certainly didn’t help her cause.

“She broke my nose in the third round, and my corner said to me early in the fight, the referee was going to take away a point from you. She was coming at me so fast, and her arms were smothering me. It wasn’t like we were holding; our arms were just tied up. The ref kept warning me, even though she had me in a headlock at one point. He took a point from me in the 5th round, but I couldn’t get going from the start. No excuses, but I just didn’t get going. Once I got the point deducted, I knew it would be a long way back.

“I was never hurt in the fight, and I wanted to stay in there to the end. I didn’t think I would ever get stopped, so my pride is hurt a bit. I wanted to keep going, but I get why my corner pulled me out. My trainer, Kevin (Lilley), has got my best interests at heart. He said I was that far behind, and my health was far more important. He said I was never going to win and just said, “Why take more punishment? What are you going to get out of it other than not having a stoppage on your record?” He said I was losing and couldn’t see any way I could win, and why take more punishment than you need to when you have two kids at home.”

Hughes said she came into the fight in the best shape of her career, but Johnson won the return fight far easier than the first fight. A detail that adds to the frustration of the 42-year-old former world champion. “Last time I thought I won it, and this time I get well beat,” Hughes told me. “We knew that’s how she would fight, but I didn’t do what I was meant to do and I just got drawn in, and that’s the most frustrating thing.”

At 42, Hughes understands her opportunities will be limited going forward, but she is keeping her options open for the remainder of this year.

“I am not going to retire for definite, but it’s more than likely that I will,” Hughes says of her immediate future. “If I got a decent offer, and if a good fight came up, then I would take it. I always said I would give myself this year, so if a good fight comes up, then I will jump at it. If it doesn’t, then it doesn’t. I am going to chase it.”

“I just love fighting,” Hughes says of what she will miss the most from boxing if she does indeed retire. “I haven’t been very active these last few years, but I love the actual fighting part of the sport. That’s the bit I love the most, and it’s a shame I didn’t get to be more active over the last couple of years.”

“The dieting and the politics,” Hughes adds when I ask her what are the things in boxing that she won’t miss.

If that second defeat to Cherneka Johnson is the last time we see Nina Hughes inside a boxing ring, then she can still look back with much pride on her career.

“My trainer reminded me that I have had eight professional fights, and six of them have been title fights. Four of them have been world title fights. So if I look at it like that, it’s some achievement.

“Winning that world title against Jamie Mitchell in Dubai was definitely my best moment in boxing. I won against all the odds. Nobody expected me to win it. Just proving everyone wrong, winning the world title at age 40.”

“Boxing has given me a purpose and something to focus on,” Hughes says of what boxing gives her. “It’s been a massive part of my life. Even though the fights in Australia didn’t end well, I have just got to enjoy every part of it, the experience, and the memories. I have got to travel the world. If that’s the end, then that’s the end. But if there is another big fight out there, I would take it.” 

The win over Mitchell should have been followed with at least some reward for upsetting the odds in beating the highly-fancied American. But a subsequent move to Matchroom didn’t really work out for her. Potential fights with Shannon Courtenay and Ebanie Bridges didn’t materialise for different reasons. That period of her career was very much a missed opportunity for all involved.

But the career of Hughes is still cause for much celebration. In many ways, it was against all odds. It could have been more. But what she had can’t ever be taken away from her. In time, the frustration will subside, and Nina Hughes will feel immensely proud of what she has achieved in boxing and, indeed, life itself. And so she should.     

Photo Credit: Matchroom Boxing