Sean O’Hagan, trainer of Maxi Hughes, suffered a heart attack and was hospitalised the morning of Hughes’ fight with Bakhdour Usmonov last week.

The bout took place in Dubai as part of the IBA Pro fight night at the Duty Free Tennis Stadium.

Hughes started well, but Usmonov came back into the bout as it wore on and edged a majority decision win over the English southpaw.

“Everything went okay,” Hughes told BoxingScene of the build up. “We weighed in Thursday and everything was alright. We all went to bed. I  got up about 9am on fight day and went downstairs. Charlie [Hughes], my assistant trainer, met me in reception.”

Charlie told him not to worry, said everything was alright, but Hughes had no idea what was coming. Before Charlie could tell him, Charlie took a phone call and Hughes saw him looking distressed and agitated. Then Charlie returned.

Maxi had already messaged O’Hagan earlier in the morning, asking where he was, but there was no reply.

“Fucking hell, what’s going on here, then,” Hughes thought.

Then Charlie returned.

“Sean’s had a heart attack,” Charlie told him.

“Is he alright, where is he?”
Hughes was told his coach was in hospital, which was next door to the hotel, and one the team was already familiar with because they’d been visiting the coffee shop inside it.

The heart attack likely happened between 7am and 8am of fight day.

“My first concerns were, is Sean alright?” said Hughes. “I want to go and see him. I want to know that he’s okay. Fuck the boxing. I’m not bothered about the boxing. So we walked over.”

Hughes was then told his trainer was in surgery, O’Hagan – father and trainer of Josh Warrington – was having four stents put in and they had to wait, not knowing what the extent of the heart attack was.

When they finally saw O’Hagan, Sean told him of the fight that night:” You know what you’re doing, you’ve trained and Charlie is going to step up and be the lead in the corner.”

“Right, okay,” said Hughes, who was just relieved to see his coach was alive.

Of fight night, Hughes said: “I did miss him. It was strange being without him.”

Hughes also said he got his pre-fight fuelling wrong and he was still worried about O’Hagan.

“The fight just didn’t go my way,” he admitted.

“Although it was close, it wasn’t a good version of me. I know I’m much better than that. The fight was frustrating. To lose a close decision and not being 100 per cent was frustrating but it’s just made me hungry. As soon as we get back, I’ll be on the phone to my manager, Jamie Conlan. I want a quick turn around and hopefully, with Jamie’s experience, he can get me straight back in. I’m desperate to achieve and get back up there. It’s made me hungrier than ever.”

Before the fight, Hughes told BoxingScene he and O’Hagan were “a perfect team.”

The team remains in Dubai, but fly back to England in the early hours tomorrow morning.

“You never know, maybe one day I’ll get the luck of the draw and things will go smoothly in a big fight,” said Hughes, 29-8-2 (6 KOs), who endured a horrendous build-up to the William Zepeda fight last year. “The frustrating bit is that it wasn’t the 100 per cent version of me, I know I’m better than that kid and I still managed to push it pretty close on a bad version.”