EXCLUSIVE – If Connor Hughes fulfils what he believes is his destiny to become an elite MMA fighter, he will be following a proud family tradition of bringing back the belts.
Hughes’ mother, Lorraine, and uncle David were both karate world champions, and his grandfather provided some of his first sessions in that discipline and kickboxing as a child.
"With my granddad, I used to just hire out a little hall in a leisure centre, so it was proper old-school," says the exciting prospect from Liverpool’s MMA Academy.
"It’s in us to compete – we all did it, we were always around it. None of us were ever fighting or training just as a hobby. We’ve always been competitive and we’ve travelled all over Europe.
"At first, they thought it was a little bit of a step from the kickboxing zone to the cage. My mum was a bit iffy about all that. Once they saw me fight, they realised that I could actually take this somewhere. Since then, I’ve had nothing but support from them."
Hughes made the transition to MMA as an 18-year-old and was a two-time British champion as an amateur, swiftly building a reputation as a professional with the help of five consecutive first-round wins at the start of his career, four of which came with the UK Fighting Championships.
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When his manager mentioned that the Professional Fighters League was looking for new European lightweights, middleweight Hughes backed himself. "Me being me, I said they should throw my hat into the ring," he says. "They watched a couple of my fights and within a few weeks they were interested."
Hughes describes himself as "absolutely flying" ahead of his debut for the promotion as part of the Professional Fighters League's PFL Europe series in Berlin on July 8, when he will face Dylan 'The Nuke' Tuke, an Irish fighter based in Scotland who has earned five wins in eight professional bouts, including appearances on Bellator and Brave CF cards.
"It’s one of the biggest and fastest-growing promotions in the world," Hughes says of the PFL. "Not only that, I’m the first Scouser they’ve signed – so it’s a big deal.
"I’ve always known I was going to be a professional fighter but if I didn’t have the want and desire to actually push forward in this, I don’t think I would be where I am now."
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The $1m on offer for becoming a PFL world champion would be some reward for Hughes’ resilience in the face of financial barriers that are familiar to many fighters.
"Everybody knows that if you’re not supported, it kind of kills your dreams a little bit," he says. "That was definitely the hardest challenge. I teach privately out of the gym and that’s how I make money just to keep me going.
"Now that I’m in the PFL, I want to win the European league. Then I want to win the world league. I want to go down as one of the best ever and make my own legacy."