HAVING things all his own way is of little concern to Joe Hughes as he prepares to put his English super-lightweight title on the line – as an away fighter.

Despite champions usually defending their belts in front of their home crowd, Malmesbury’s Hughes has long struggled to secure meaningful fight dates and has opted to travel to Walsall on December 12 to take on Belfast-based Anthony Upton, with his St George’s strap the sweetener.

Last month, the 25-year-old (13-1) saw a title defence against Glenn Foot fall through and had to settle for a fight against inexperienced Czech teenager Tomas Bartunek in Swindon, which lasted just a round.

In just over three weeks’ time, Hughes will forego the usual home comforts afforded to a reigning title-holder when he locks horns with 23-year-old Upton, who is trained by former world champion Ricky Hatton, but the Malmesbury fighter is simply happy to be heading in to a meaningful contest.

“Some fighters win titles and are happy to just wait around. They want everything on their own terms but that doesn’t bother me at all,” said Hughes, who is trained and managed by Andy O’Kane at Bristol’s Paddy John’s Gym.

“It’s still a ring at the end of the day. I’ve been an away fighter before and if this is what I’ve got to do to get fights, then I’ll do it.

“People don’t want to come and fight me. We offered the fight to this kid before but he didn’t want to travel for it.

“They’ve set it up hoping that he’s going to win and there’s a lot of hype around him because he’s trained by Ricky Hatton but I’m going there to defend my title.

“He’s the kind of boxer that likes to switch stance. He keeps his hands down a lot and is a stylish boxer but I spar with people that are like that in the gym.

“I’m looking forward to it. It’s not that far away, so it’s really been about keeping things going because I trained for a 10-round fight in my last fight.”

Challenger Upton is unbeaten in 11 contests but his lengthiest fight to date is an eight-round victory over Melksham’s Liam Richards in October.