Maxi Hughes’ former trainer Gary Lockett thinks that the fighter’s defeat to George Kambosos will have improved him.
Hughes fights William Zepeda on March 16 live on DAZN in a lightweight eliminator, with the winner in line for a shot at both the IBF and WBA belts down the line.
Hughes boasts plenty of experience at 34 years of age, and he impressed in a fight against Kambosos Jr. in July last year, sling by a controversial majority decision.Lockett thinks that will spur him on to improve his performance, he explained.
“I had a phone call off Maxi going back about three months before he fought Kambosos,” Lockett said, reported BoxingScene.com.
“He’d had an offer to fight a certain person, and an offer to fight Kambosos. I said, ‘Everyday of the week – fight Kambosos. Take the fight with him. What’s the money like?’ ‘It’s not bad, but it’s not brilliant.’ ‘You go over there – you got the ability and the awkwardness to cause him fits.’
“It turns out he did a lot better than I thought he was gonna do. I knew he was gonna give him problems. People use the term ‘Awkward southpaw’. Not every southpaw’s awkward. But he is awkward, the way he moves, and he gave him fits. I thought he won the fight comfortably.
“We had a nice conversation, and my advice turned out to be what he thought he should do, and he ended up boxing him and doing really well. As well as he did in that fight – that’s why he’s in the position he is now, because he’s highly ranked by the organisations – who’s to say that he can’t do the business on the weekend?
“I certainly helped his confidence. He was looking at Gavin Rees and going, ‘Wow’. I said, ‘Stop going wow – you’re good enough to be in this gym; don’t tell yourself any different’, and I think he improved a great deal while he was there.
“A loss doesn’t always finish you. He’s had quite a few defeats and he’s come out the back end an even better fighter than he’s ever been.
“Look what he did to the guy. Okay, he ‘lost’ the fight, and everyone can pretend – Kambosos’ people and trainers – he didn’t lose the fight but he lost that fight fair and square, and you could see the look on his face at the end. You knew that he’d been bamboozled. Maxi certainly goes into the fight with a lot more confidence. You’ll see a better Maxi Hughes in this fight than you saw against Kambosos.
“Not everybody can travel and win. You see guys who are brilliant in their own country and their own backyard and then they have to travel and it just takes something away from them. Maxi’s shown that he’s travelled and he’s got robbed blind.
“[Zepeda’s] a puncher. But we’ve seen [Hughes] against punchers a couple of times and he seems to bamboozle them. He does this one-two right hook thing; rolls out; steps out; leaves the left hooker in the dust. He often does it. I’m confident he can do the business.”
Live on DAZN: Watch William Zepeda vs. Maxi Hughes on March 16