BN Verdict: Maxi Hughes proves once again that no one is more easily robbed than an underdog in the boxing ring
Possibly the only thing less surprising than the longtime Maxi Hughes being robbed in a top game in the US against a former world champion is the outrage in terms of performing, I-care more than you-do which inevitably followed. For surely we now know the nature of the beast. We certainly know that by passionately pursuing a scientifically incorrect sport that is boxing to be exact, we are susceptible to moments like this – over and over again.
It is no consolation for Hughes, for whom I have a lot of sympathy, but he will know more than anyone the nature of the beast. Don’t forget, this isn’t the first time the Yorkshireman has found it difficult to play professionally. It’s also not a shocking outcome when one considers the backdrop of tonight’s battle (July 22) in Oklahoma and indeed Hughes’ involvement in the event.
Sadly, and possibly even unwittingly, Hughes, when offered to fight George Kambosos and then accepted it, set himself up to be treated this way in the first place. Again, that’s just one of the unwritten laws of boxing. As the underdog and whose well-documented Cinderella Story, Hughes tonight is seen as the perfect opponent for Kambosos, 21-2 (10), to not only get his career back on track but also if things start to go awry, robbing the win.
Ideally not, but the point is, Hughes was and is an easy target. Obviously a grateful expat, he’s happy to be there. He was happy to have earned the highest paid day of his career and left after claiming to be the man who was prone to robbing these men. Another line they used was: “Even when he failed, his reputation was enhanced.” That hurts to hear and says as meaningless as any other compliment behind the back and Hughes, hearing it tonight, is sure to want to run a mile.
Yes, it is true, his reputation will be enhanced by his performance, but that means nothing on the political stage; That’s exactly where boxing at the highest level takes place. Hughes will be aware of this by now and he will be back in England on Sunday or Monday and have to accept the fact that he lost a match simply because it was the one he never wanted to win. His eventual loss of it could have been for any number of reasons: the pure incompetence of the judges, for example, or alas, something more sinister and predestined. Either way, it doesn’t really matter in the end. Boxing, which is a sport in which three men or women decide the winner if the fight goes on for 12 rounds, will always deliver moments like this and those who watch the sport, as blind or as stupid as the umpires themselves, will always cause an uproar afterwards.
However, it was a futile groan at best, for what exactly did they expect to change? This, unlike a Wimbledon final, is not a sport of numbers and calls. Instead, it is a sport that is not strictly about opinion and mostly conjecture. Furthermore, as the sport is increasingly infiltrated by slanderers but without deep knowledge or in-depth knowledge, it is certain that underdog cases will become more and more common. After all, to read a fight that requires experience, patience, and intelligence, three-component boxing, as a sport, seems determined to eliminate in order to take away what it can then take.
Now, because of this, we are only left with problems like tonight. We have to sympathize with poor Maxi Hughes, a boxer who performed his best against George Kambosos only to receive no reward at the end of the fight. We also have to ask the same questions that we have asked before and the same questions that we will ask again in the future, for some reason expecting something to change.
But of course, it won’t. In fact, until boxing becomes a completely different sport, this will forever be part of conspiracy and chaos; By the way, whether people like to admit it or not, that’s what makes their hearts race and today, their fingers twitch. So to complain about it now, in 2023, is like marrying a porn star and feeling a bit uncomfortable when she comes home from work smelling of other men. In other words, it’s a wasteful complaint for a sport where such problems are part of its DNA. “Love me for who I am or not love me at all,” it might say if it was a woman. “You know what I was like when you married me.”
Hughes, no fool, needless to say this. Nor does he need to say that he started well in tonight’s game in Oklahoma, clearly beating the Kambosos in three of the first four rounds, and that he fought smartly for much of the rest of the match, combining backfoot boxing with mantra as he set foot and struck with selective body strikes. In hindsight, Hughes, currently 26-6-2 (5), might go without saying that by skipping round 12, which is always a danger in a skirmish, he essentially left the door open for three eager to get in and steal his goods; These things he worked so hard to buy. That, it is true, is not enough to get the Kambosos to fight, but an experienced campaigner at world level, which Hughes is not, will be more wary of the possibility of being robbed on a night like this and will know that in boxing, winning is sometimes not enough to actually be a winner.
