In his first column of 2024, Joe Hughes looks ahead to Artur Beterbiev vs. Callum Smith and Anthony Joshua vs. Francis Ngannou. The former European super-lightweight champion also discusses his own plans for the year and pays tribute to a “pivotal” member of his family who sadly passed away recently.
This time of year, everyone wants to get back in the gym, so I’ve picked up a few clients; some new, some who have returned.
I’ve been doing a fair bit of training myself and been quite involved with the amateur club’s training. We had our club show in the middle of December, and it didn’t go very well. A lot of our boxers underperformed, in my opinion, so we’ve given them a kick up the proverbial. We’ve got stricter with them and been on their case trying to make sure they’re up to the standard we expect.
I’ll keep pushing forward in 2024 with my coaching and being involved with the amateur club. I’m still undecided about my own career. I need to make a decision over what I’m going to do. Over Christmas, I trained quite a lot. I need to either box this year and compete or not. I feel like I need to do that for my own peace of mind and my family’s.
On a personal note, an auntie of mine passed away this week. She was a high-level nurse and quite pivotal to me. When I was born, she was on the case to my parents because she understood what had happened to me. They didn’t really know much about it. These days we have the Erbs Palsy charity, which is good for parents, but back when I was born it didn’t exist. This was pre-Internet. It was hard to get information or learn anything about it. Luckily for me she knew all about it and emphasised the importance of the physiotherapy. She was on the ball right from the off, which played a part in the improvement of my ability and capabilities of my arm. Whatever limitations there were, they would have been worse if it hadn’t been for her expertise.
It looks like a good start to the boxing year with some of the fights already made. Sometimes, what goes on outside the sport overshadows what goes on in the ring, but you can’t sniff too much at what we’re getting for the first few months.
I’m really interested in watching Beterbiev vs. Smith. I know Callum a tiny bit. We were on the same England team a few times when we were younger, and we were in the same championships, believe it or not, but we never boxed each other. We were in the same age group, and we were the same sort of weight, then I just stopped growing!
Callum has kept on improving and getting better and better. As a pro he’s done brilliantly. Came up short against Canelo (Alvarez), but that’s no disgrace. He didn’t look himself that night compared to when he fought George Groves. I think he’s got a good chance on Saturday. Beterbiev is one of the top fighters in the sport, probably pound-for-pound one of the biggest punchers. He’s a destroyer, but he’s got very good technical ability as well. I think Callum can win if he is fresh, which he should be, and if he can stay away and not get caught by Beterbiev’s big shots. He’s got a reach advantage and has power himself. Beterbiev is the favourite, but Callum is a real live underdog. I wish Callum all the best. Hopefully, the winner faces Dmitry Bivol, and we have one champion at light-heavyweight.
It looks like we’ll see Anthony Joshua fight Francis Ngannou in March. It’s a fight I’m looking forward to, and I wouldn’t have said that six months ago. Ngannou performed really well against Tyson Fury and has the style that could be hard work for Joshua.
Joshua is normally the stronger, more athletic, and bigger man against whoever he faces. He’s not going to be, though, against Ngannou. He is more skilful, obviously, and has much more experience, and I would expect Joshua to win, but I think it will be an intriguing and interesting fight. On paper, it shouldn’t be. I don’t think Joshua will underestimate Ngannou the way Fury did. The cat’s out the bag now.