Dennis Hughes reflects on XFC 45 win, is eager to move up the ranks

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Dennis Hughes reflects on XFC 45 win, is eager to move up the ranks

The way he viewed it, lightweight Dennis Hughes’ bout versus Davi Young at XFC 45 on August 6 was very much slated in his favor from the start. Knowing what kind of fighter Young was and how he spoke in interviews, Hughes was confident he was the kind of fighter to outmatch his opponent.

Hughes knew that if he could get out of the first five minutes of the fight, it would become his to win, and that’s exactly what he did with a second round TKO.

“(Young’s) a first round fighter, and I’m really good at weathering any storms in the first round and making it through and finding a way to win,” Hughes told MMAWeekly.com. “It pretty much went exactly as we planned.

“Whenever we were in the press conference he mentioned he was going to try to finish me in the first round, and it didn’t happen like that.”

Having since returned to fighting in September of 2020 after a year layoff, Hughes has shown no sign of slowing down, having had six fights since then. Hughes credits some of this to the fact he was able to keep training while others might have not been able to.

“The only way it affected me was I couldn’t go to gyms anymore, but me and my brother were training pretty consistently, so I didn’t have to stop training,” said Hughes. “Getting back into fighting was not a problem. It’s what I like to do, training; it’s the way I like to spend my time.”

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Additionally it’s mental training that Hughes has employed throughout his three year pro career that has been a big part of his success so far.

“When I first turned pro I was just kind of getting into strategy, and things like the Book of Five Rings, and me and my brother would play chess all the time at that point and time in order to get my mindset right for fights,” Hughes said. “Now my base set of mind is like I’m playing chess so it’s definitely a lot easier to strategize in the moment.”

With a quarter still left in 2021, Hughes is open to any opportunity that comes his way that can help him further his rise up the lightweight ranks.

“(The goal is to) keep training and keep fighting and hopefully improve in the ranks,” said Hughes. “It doesn’t matter who, I just want to make sure I have a few weeks to cut the weight, and as long as I get paid a good amount of money I’ll fight anybody.”

Dennis Hughes reflects on XFC 45 win, is eager to move up the ranks