Despite his own conviction that he would hand McKee only the second defeat of his 24-fight career, Hughes was a clear underdog going into the contest.
However, the Irishman dropped McKee with a right hook in the first round and he went on to hold a clear edge in the proceedings even though the judges opted for a split decision.
“I actually had a full YouTube video shot and ready to post, literally when I finished the fight because I really believed that I was going to knock him out with a right knee. My god, I came close three times,” he said.
“The sequence before I dropped him with a right hand came from a flying knee but before that earlier in the round, there was one knee that just missed him by a millimetre. It would have knocked him clean out and my prediction would have been correct.”
Hughes admits having “flashbacks” from his heartbreaking sole career defeat by England’s Jordan Vucenic in 2020, a loss he later avenged, when the split decision was announced following Saturday’s contest.
“I remember looking at the colour of my gloves and thinking ‘is this going to happen again? Am I going to be completely robbed blind here?’
“Thankfully it went my way. It’s kind of crazy. I don’t know where a split [decision] came from. I don’t think anybody does to be honest. This is MMA judging and we see this literally every single weekend of an MMA.”
