NEVER before have the odds been more heavily stacked against Joe Hughes but Malmesbury’s English super-lightweight champion isn’t bothered one bit.

The 25-year-old (14-1) travels to the Macron Stadium in Bolton tonight to take on the highly-rated Jack Catterall (14-0) in front of his own fans in a final eliminator for the British title, with Hughes’ English strap and the Lancashire man’s WBO inter-continental belt also on the line.

With the fight topping a Frank Warren-promoted bill, which will be broadcast live on Warren’s BoxNation channel, Hughes has been installed as the rank outsider against Catterall, who is ranked fourth in the world by the WBO, with bookmaker Paddy Power pricing the 22-year-old at 20/1 on to win whilst Hughes can be backed at 8/1.

Additionally, few Hughes supporters are expected to make the trip north to Greater Manchester but the Wiltshire fighter says that he’s more than ready to provide a shock on fight night.

“A lot of people seem to think that he’s going to beat me comfortably and knock me out, and it makes me laugh,” said Hughes, who trains under Andy O’Kane at Paddy John’s Gym in Bristol.

“I’ve never been stopped. I’ve never been knocked down. I’ve never even had a standing count in the amateurs, which you can get quite easily.

“It’s definitely my toughest fight on paper but I’m interested to see just how good he is because there’s a lot of hype around him, but you never know how good someone is until you step into the ring with them.

“He’s stopped a lot of his opponents and he’s probably going to come out and try and knock my head off but I prefer that to having to chase someone around – I think it’s going to be a great fight.

“Because it’s on a Friday night, not many of my fans can really make it up to Bolton.

“A few of my friends are farmers and someone said to me ‘I can’t make it because I can’t get anyone to milk the cows’, which is funny.

“I’ll probably have 25 people and he’ll have 1,000 but that doesn’t bother me. When I was an amateur, I went to away shows with just my mum, my dad and my coaches.

“I prefer being the underdog and hopefully, at the end of the night, my 25 fans will be celebrating and his won’t be.”