Maxi Hughes previously surfaced as an unexpected option for Ryan Garcia’s next planned fight.

He and his team to revisit such plans for his next outing following his latest win.

The 32-year-old southpaw from Rossington, Yorkshire eyes a big fight in the U.S. following a hard-fought, twelve-round, split decision victory over former IBF featherweight titlist Kid Galahad. The lightweight battle headlined a September 24 DAZN show in Nottingham, England, with the fight coming together after Hughes was previously contacted by Garcia (23-0, 19KOs) for a possible meeting this fall.

“On paper, I’ve just beaten a former IBF champion,” Hughes noted. “Not a champion who was at his best four or five years ago. This is a guy who was champion in his last fight less than a year ago. Again the underdog, people don’t expect me to win these fights. That just adds more fuel to the fire.”

Garcia openly disclaimed that Hughes was a backup plan in the event the American contender was out of options, as he remains in talks for a hoped-for superfight with Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (27-0, 25KOs). Hughes (26-5-2, 5KOs) wisely kept it moving, agreeing to face Galahad (28-3, 17KOs) in a fight that was supposed to be part of a show headlined by Nottingham’s Leigh Wood in a dangerous secondary WBA featherweight title defense against Maurcio ‘Bronco’ Lara. A biceps injury suffered by Wood during training prompted Hughes-Galahad to be elevated to main event. The unexpected headliner was a bonus for Hughes, who has now beaten a former titlist and two title challengers (Jono Carroll, Paul Hyland Jr.) among his current seven-fight win streak.

“Two of the judges gave it to me. ‘And still’. Now we move on to the next one,” noted Hughes. “The Maxi Hughes train is all aboard. We’re waiting on the conductor to drive it and move forward.”

The conductor would be promoter Eddie Hearn, whose aim is to secure the biggest opportunity and payday imaginable for the British southpaw.

“He deserves it,” Hearn stated after Hughes’ latest win. “We talked about [former three-division titlist] Jorge Linares and thought that fight was done. Ryan Garcia was sliding into his DMs. We landed on Kid Galahad. No disrespect to Kid Galahad but that’s a horrible, tricky fight with no reward. He rolled the dice himself and came through. The Maxi Hughes train continues. We got to land that big American payday.

“We want to take him to America, let him set himself apart and walk away with everything he’s ever dreamed of. That’s the idea and he deserves it. He's come back from nowhere. I remember him losing on shows for area titles. When he’s given his whole life to the sport, he deserves nights like this.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox