It is a very exciting time for Paul ‘Big News’ Hughes.
The former Cage Warriors Featherweight champion rounded off his tenure with the promotion in style, stopping Fabiano Silva in the very first round of their co-main event at Cage Warriors 170.
The bout marked the last in Hughes’ Cage Warriors contract and instead of resigning, the 26-year-old has opted to explore the world of free agency.
In his final fight for the promotion, Hughes showed exactly why he will be considered one of the hottest free agents on the market with a clinic against the vastly more experienced Silva. Speaking to Edith Labelle post-fight, Hughes admitted he thought he was going to be in for a long night when Silva ate the first big shot of the bout. He said:
“I'm the best in the world. How many times have I got to keep saying it? You know, people are starting to see now. Look, I'm not getting beat. I'm barely getting touched. Yes. My opponent tonight probably not on the same level as someone like a Vucenic or a Chappa. I'll tell you what, 50 fight veteran, barely ever been finished, maybe twice or three times.
“Honestly, my knee is so sore from the first knee I hit him. I've never landed a cleaner jumping knee in my life. The guy, he just took it and I was like, Oh, I'm in for a long night. But I think the second knee that fully landed dazed him. I hit him with a punch and he just went into that place where like your senses are just gone.
“After a couple of shots like that and he just had the cover himself up. Then I started hitting him on the ground and then he started transitioning and moving around. I was like, Goddammit, this guy is going to be here all night, like. And then I just landed a clean elbow. And then I thought he was still covered up.
“And I thought, I'm going to just throw hell on him now, because this may be my chance to get him out of here. I must have hit him six, seven, eight elbows. And that was enough for him.
Reflecting on the five years he has spent in the yellow gloves, Hughes looked back on his time fondly. In what has been a storied run with the promotion the Fight Academy Ireland man has seen it all, from dealing with his first professional loss, to coming back and winning the world title. He said:
“I'll just remember the big nights. The big nights tonight, the Quaeyhaegens fight both in Dublin, you know, I hadn't fought on home soil and many years. All of them were in London, you know, in the York hall and the O2 and I'll remember them nights. The World Title fights will always be the greatest nights of my life, you know, 24 years old going and fighting Morgan Charriere and that crazy crazy night winning a world title.
“Nights like that are just absolutely priceless. And I'll go to the grave of them nights. And that's all down to Cage Warriors they've built my career and it's going to be sad to go, honestly. It's the people, you know, it's the people, the relationships we have.
“My team have, we've been here for so long and like everyone like here is truly like family. And it'll be sad to move on, but we're going to be here all the time. We got our other guys coming up. We had Matt Elliott get the win tonight, Scott Harvey get the win tonight you know that's a new generation of fight academy you know I'm going to move on the boys are coming behind me.
“So it's I'm not going to be saying bye to Cage Warriors.”
You can watch his full interview, below:
