Kid Galahad during media day September 21, 2022 Photo by Mark Robinson Matchroom Boxing
Slender, compact and invariably solemn, Kid Galahad is in no mood to joke around ahead of his twelve-round lightweight bout with fellow South Yorkshire contender Maxi Hughes.
And you can’t blame him, after losing his IBF featherweight belt in his own Sheffield backyard to Spain’s Kiko Martinez in November last year. It was a fight in which Galahad was mostly dominant, until he took a spectacular right hand to the chin and a second in the top of the sixth round familiarized him with the canvas in convincing fashion.
“[Trainer] Brendan Ingle always told us to get up and get on with things. I got knocked out, but what am I supposed to do, go back home and feel sorry for myself and cry? Of course he was devastated. I thought about it a lot, but you can do it while you’re in the gym. We have adjusted.
Galahad has now moved up two weight divisions under the guidance of trainer Dominic Ingle and his team (although he is currently still listed in The Ring’s featherweight rankings at No. 9), where the fighter says he feels much more comfortable.
“I think people don’t realize how big it was for 126. When you’re younger, you can get away with certain things and bounce back. The older you get, the bigger you get and the harder it is to lift weights. That’s why certain fighters get promoted,” says Galahad. “I probably should have moved up after the Jazza Dickens fight, but it’s tough when you get big money to defend the title, and I’ve always wanted to defend the title.”
As Ingle mentions, Galahad needs to win this fight or risk his career crashing. As he says, “I’m going to go in and rip Maxi Hughes apart. Whether I get the stoppage or not, I want to bring him down emotionally and physically,” but he adds that the 25-5 Englishman is often underrated. “The main strength of him is that he is better than he seems and he fights with fear. A fighter who fights in fear can be dangerous. It’s not going to be a walk in the park with him. But I think I beat him in every department.”
In their matchup this week, Maxi Hughes referred to Galahad as a “dirty fighter” who steps on his opponent’s toes a lot, but Galahad seems to take the accusation in stride. “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If it bothers him so much that I step on his foot, when he fights me he can wear steel-toed boots instead of boxing boots. It is nothing intentional. It’s a fight. We’re not going in there to tickle each other.”
As for headlining the Nottingham card this weekend, an unexpected twist after the original Wood v Lara main event was canceled due to injury, Galahad wasn’t bothered either. “A fight is a fight for me, it doesn’t matter if I’m up or down. My mentality is that you are fighting for your life. Put me on the bottom of an Anthony Joshua bill and give me more money, and I’d be happier.”
Nothing about Galahad’s serious and focused demeanor in the lead up to the fight seems like an act. “I’m not here to make friends. In this game, he’s not really your friend, I get it, but [Maxi] maybe not. At the moment, she has had a good run, so she might think that some people are his friends. After Saturday night, she’s going to realize that no one was really her friend.”
