09/06/25 DAZN: Pat McCormack vs Miguel Parra
- Thread starter The Ruler 09
- Start date
"Adam Maca is holding court in a seafront restaurant in Brighton and Hove. It’s a beautiful day on the south coast of England and to his left, out through huge open windows, the waves dance to the beating sun, creating the illusion that spotlights are bobbing along the surface.
Maca, 1-0 (1 KO), speaks fondly about the water. He will swim in the sea most mornings after completing his strength training, and the day before while out in his canoe, he even caught a fish.
“To be fair it was just luck,” he tells BoxingScene. “It was only a little one. It somehow ended up on the hook and I just threw it back out.”
Though there is humility about his fishing skills, there is little of the sort when he discusses his ability to box. Maca, every inch the confident 18-year-old hotshot, recently declared after winning his professional debut that he would become an undisputed champion within five years.
Was that just the adrenalin talking, or does he really believe it?
“I meant it,” he says before admitting that Sam Jones, his advisor, has warned him about making too many grandiose statements at today’s media luncheon. “But I’ve thought from when I was a six-year-old boy that no one could beat me. I feel exactly the same now. I say the same to my mum at home. I do believe it will happen.”
Enviably carefree, Maca lives approximately three miles west with his family, in the nearby town of Shoreham-by-sea. He boasts about the number of tickets he’s sold for the September 9 show in Houghton-le-Spring, which is around 290 miles north. He relives his debut, a second-round stoppage of the overmatched Rafael Castillo inside Madison Square Garden, like a world champion would talk about winning their biggest fight.
Maca is right to be proud of the progress he’s making, yet, given so few make it as high as he is planning to fly, one naturally watches on and wonders what will become of him in the future when he encounters his first hard fight, when he’s hurt badly, when the boxing business inevitably shows its true colors. For now, the teenager is content that such a day is a long way off – or might not even come at all.
“Technically, you might have someone who’s got a better jab than me, who’s got better feet than me, who’s got better head movement than me, but I’ve never looked at someone and thought they could beat me,” he tells me with complete sincerity. “Maybe it’s been proven that people can out-jab me for a round, but I will catch up with you, I will take over.”
He regularly took over in the vested code when, losing after two rounds in major international tournaments, he won the third so emphatically he nicked a victory. “I still went out and got the job done. It happened a lot. I feel like my style is far better suited to the pros, the longer rounds, more time. I’ll thrive – and I thrived as an amateur even after losing the first and second rounds.”
Maca, a prospect of exceptionally high regard, owes a lot to his parents. His father, Vlad Maca, moved to Italy and then Brighton from Albania when a teenager, hiking to Greece for seven long and gruelling days at the start of his journey. Today, he drives Adam to Dan Woledge’s gym in Kent every day. Before that, after Maca has emerged from his dip in the ocean, his mum will bring food of his choosing to the gym he uses in Brighton.
Though his confidence is real, the fact he is here, the center of attention in this restaurant he used to visit as child before it was refurbished, still feels a little strange.
“Someone asked me for a photo when I was just in Brighton,” Maca explains about his newfound stardom. “I just think of myself as Adam, so I find it a surreal experience, getting all these things when, in my own head, I haven’t changed from when I was 13, just boxing in the amateurs in a pub somewhere.”
The bantamweight’s plans are simple: Build his name in the UK, rise through the weights, claim all the belts, turn Brighton into a hotspot of boxing activity, then head to Albania where he yearns to headline, and spread the word of Adam Maca worldwide. “I’m only at the start of my journey and it is only going to keep getting better from here,” he says. “I can’t wait to show the world what everyone says about me and that the hype is real.”
Adam Maca Believes He'll Be an Undisputed Champ in Five Years | BoxingScene
Unbeaten 18-year-old Adam Maca vows to become an undisputed champion within five years, believing he's an elite talent destined for stardom.
www.boxingscene.com
The teen aiming to be youngest undisputed champion
Tiah-Mai Ayton won her pro debut via a third-round stoppage in June 2025
- Published
4 September 2025, 07:52 BST
- Published
Tiah-Mai Ayton, 19, has set her sights on becoming the youngest ever undisputed champion in the four-belt era across both genders in boxing.
America's Gabriela Fundora was just 22 when she held all the world titles in the flyweight division in November 2024.
Ayton clearly isn't shy when laying out her ambitions, but why should she? In over 300 fights across Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu and boxing, just three of those have been defeats - which she later avenged.
She will contest her second professional boxing bout against Lydie Bialic on Saturday.
When the Bristol fighter was told about Fundora's achievement, her eyes lit up: "I could do that. I can definitely do that.
"That's going to be a new challenge for me. I've got a long time."
Ayton is right. She does have a long time, but women's boxing also moves fast - just look at compatriot Nina Hughes.
She won a world title in just her fifth fight as a professional.
Not only is Ayton setting her sights on records, but she's got her eyes on gold and plenty of it.
"I want to be undisputed in bantamweight and super-bantamweight and then it goes featherweight and super-featherweight," said Ayton.
"I want to do those four categories, and I want to be undisputed in all four. It's high expectations but I think I can do it."
Only one boxer, Claressa Shields, has won all four world titles in three different weights, no one yet has managed it in four.
The likes of Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano have paved the way for women boxers to earn millions of pounds but Ayton isn't getting carried away despite her youth.
When asked what she would purchase with her first healthy fight purse, the teenager opted against a flash car.
"I want a farm. I want cows, sheep, goats and chickens. That's my dream," Ayton said.
"I'll just live a quiet life on my farm and then when I train, I'll go into camp, and then go back and be peaceful."
'I've always known I'd be a figher'
Ayton was scooped up by promoter Eddie Hearn, who also promotes Katie Taylor
Ayton signed with promoter Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing after she caught the eye when sparring with former featherweight world champion Skye Nicolson aged 18.
At youth level, she is a five-time national champion and won gold in the 57kg weight category at the amateur World Championships in Colorado last year.
She also won the televised Haringey Box Cup in June last year at the 60kg lightweight limit.
This was all before a stunning stoppage in the third round of her professional debut against Sara Orszagi in June.
But, despite the super-bantamweight wanting to make history in the sport, if it wasn't for childhood squabbles with her sister, she might not have discovered her talent at all.
"It's actually so silly," Ayton said.
"I started because me and my sister always used to fight all the time.
"My dad got us into kickboxing at the age of six, and I just carried it on from there. I've always known I'd be a fighter."
Ayton was earmarked as a potential prospect for Great Britain's Olympic Games team because of her impressive youth career.
She said "everyone wants a gold medal" - but the style of amateur boxing put her off.
"I had the opportunity to go with GB but I'm a family person and I love being with my family. I didn't want to move away and move up to Sheffield," she said.
"I feel like the whole style of amateur just didn't suit me. I just like getting in there and fighting.
"I like stopping people."
The decision was made to turn pro at the tender age of 18 and in May, she was signed by Matchroom.
Being signed by Hearn and boasting a 21-0 amateur record mean Ayton carries a huge reputation with her into her debut.
With braces on her teeth and being touted as the future of women's boxing, Ayton felt the pressure.
"I remember having a chat with my coach [Dean Lewis] before. We both had pressure on us," she said.
"Everyone has bigged me up and when people lose, they blame it on their coaches, so we had a lot of pressure on us.
"I know what I'm capable of and he knows what I'm capable of.
"It's just another day for me really. I've been fighting since I can remember. It's just about winning, that's all I care about."
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