Regular Boxing News columnist and former European super lightweight champion Joe Hughes looks ahead to tonight's WBC title fight in Brooklyn and reveals plans for the next chapter in his career as a trainer .
DEVIN HANEY and Ryan Garcia will fight for the WBC super lightweight championship tonight (April 20). This should be quite an interesting match.
Haney, the former undisputed lightweight champion, captured the WBC 140-pound version last time out from Regis Prograis with a dominant performance. I expect Haney to be in a similar position later tonight and win by points or maybe even by late stoppage.
Garcia was acting rather strangely during the build-up, with some questioning whether the fight should go ahead due to concerns about his mental health. Is he just trying to be showy, entertaining and controversial to sell the fight or are there some real issues there?
Haney will be looking to win convincingly to try and establish a stronger position in his new division. Teofimo Lopez is the current consensus number one following his win over Josh Taylor and the Haney-Garcia winner will certainly look towards a unification possibility against Lopez.
WBC super lightweight mandatory challenger Sandor Martin, my old opponent, will have other plans. He was paid to step aside to let Haney-Garcia happen. I imagine it would take a huge amount of money to get him to step aside again and let the winner face Lopez. In my opinion, Martin will be a very tough fight. When he fought Lopez in December 2022, he did not receive a decision but in the eyes of many, he won the fight by taking Lopez down long and knocking him down twice although only once in that number is recorded.
This week I decided to apply for my professional trainer license with the British Boxing Board of Control. I obtained my amateur coaching license in the late 2000s with Malmesbury ABC and have been heavily involved in coaching at Paddy Johns ABC over the past five years or so.
It's something I've wanted to do for a long time but not while I was still boxing. Now I have finally decided Retire properly it was the logical next step for me and something I was looking forward to.
