The excitement was palpable in John Hedges’ voice as the 22-year-old cruiserweight spoke to BoxingScene. An hour earlier – and for the first time since his amateur days – he had looked into the eyes of the man who wanted to beat him.
Hedges, 9-0 (3 KOs), will face undefeated Lewis Oakford, 5-0, for the Southern Area cruiserweight title at the Copper Box Arena on Saturday night (July 6). After spending the first half of his career meeting the demands and gaining experience in fights with tough, experienced fighters and undemanding foreign fighters, he noticed a distinct difference in energy when he faced Oakford after Thursday’s press conference.
“I know I’m only 22, but I’ve been in the game for a while now and that’s all I’ve ever known,” Hedges said. “You know when someone’s ready for it. I can see a little bit of nervousness in his eyes, but I can definitely see he’s ready to fight. He knows he’s going to be tested, but he knows he’s capable of it. He’s going to be fine.”
“I look at every opponent like it’s my last fight. I train for all of them like they’re world title fights. This one, I know it’s going to be sizzling. That’s what we want. We don’t train for uncomplicated fights. We’re always in the deep end sparring. I think this is a performance where I can stand out. The pressure is gone because it’s not about me having to deal with them, it’s more about me doing myself and just doing what I do best.”
“You know when styles clash and someone wants a good, entertaining fight. Opportunities will present themselves and you just have to take advantage of them.”
In 2020, the 6-foot-1 left-hander turned pro at age 18, fighting in the super middleweight division, but a combination of genetics and pro-fighter training quickly developed him into a huge lithe heavyweight contender.
Hedges has struggled with a hand injury since the early stages of his career and last year he finally came to terms with the need for surgery to properly fix the problem. The resulting 10-month layoff has given him plenty of time to assess his progress and plot a course forward.
He decided to end his days of disguising himself as a lithe heavyweight and commit to moving up to 200 pounds. Hedges re-emerged in February and looked like a true cruiserweight when he knocked out German Erdogan Kadriya with a single, well-placed, arcing left hook.
“Everything happens for a reason. If anything, it was a blessing because it gave me 10 months to get bigger and gradually put on the right weight,” he said. “Even though I gained weight, I kept my speed and style. I didn’t have to make championship weight for my last fight, but I told myself I would and I would exploit it as a test. That’s exactly what I did,” he said.
“The crazy thing is that I’m still cutting weight to get to cruiserweight. I’m really a huge cruiserweight. That shows how much I was holding myself back from being who I was meant to be. That helped me a lot. I knew I was never going to be a lithe heavyweight. Even though I fought there, it was always in the back of my mind that I wasn’t going to win a championship. To be able to say I’m in a division now where I’m going to win titles is nice.”
Almost every fighter will sooner or later have to deal with the discomfort of an injured hand, but no one should get used to it and enter the ring thinking about getting injured.
Hedges’ hand was in such bad shape that he even refrained from hitting the pads in the locker room before fights. He fought with his teeth clenched almost as demanding as his fist, and he considered the potential consequences of letting go of his hands before he turned his knuckles over. The injury robbed Hedges of some of his instinctive freedom and prevented him from demonstrating what he was capable of.
Kadrija’s spectacular knockout had two purposes. First, it proved to Hedges that he was more than capable of imposing himself on fully-fledged cruiserweights, but it also gave him a much-needed boost of confidence that his body wouldn’t let him down.
“Trying to explain it to people was demanding because I didn’t really want them to know what I was going through. I knew beforehand that my hand was going to go down. It was inevitable. Let’s make sure it doesn’t happen on the shin guards. Let’s make sure it happens in the ring and make sure I have half a chance,” he said.
“It’s a different mentality to get used to. I had to be so confident that I thought, ‘I can take this guy down with a punch if I have to.’ It’s crazy, but I had to, because I was pretty sure I could do it.
“After the surgery, I feel like I’m at a fresh start. I can take on real fights, fight real opponents, and put everything into it.
“In my last fight I threw a left hook that knocked him out, and if you watch it, I’m not bashing it, but I’m letting it go because it was my first comeback from an injury and I was like, ‘Should I? Shouldn’t I?’ My reaction to it was relief. People asked me why I was shaking so much, but it was relief because I was more afraid of the pain of it than I was of getting knocked down.”
The cruiserweight division is one of the deepest in British boxing, meaning that fighters fighting at 200lbs don’t have to make huge leaps of faith to reach the top. There are achievable goals at every turn. Hedges is well aware that winning the Southern Area title won’t open up the entire division to him, but he also knows it will set him on the right path.
“There are so many paths to go. I was asked if I felt pressure and I said that us newborn fighters are the worst at putting pressure on ourselves. We have to remember that there is no pressure. I’m 22 years elderly and I’m a cruiserweight. There are so many paths. There is no pressure. You just have to train demanding and I have every confidence that whatever happens, happens. When the time is right, you’ll do it.”
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