JOE HUGHES marries Amy O’Kane, the mother of his four-month-old son Alby, in Tetbury in three weeks’ time.

Both Joe and Amy know there will be no honeymoon just yet – because there is another important date in his calendar for which he has waited six and a half years.

When Malmesbury’s Hughes became a professional boxer in October 2010 his one ambition was to win a British title – and, almost more importantly, to wear a famous Lonsdale Belt.

On April 22 in the Leicester Arena he has the chance to fulfil that ambition when he takes on reigning champion Tyrone Nurse for the British Super Lightweight (welterweight) title.

It is the most high profile bout of 26-year-old Hughes’ career and it will be one of the first bills broadcast live on BT Sport in a new arrangement with promoter Frank Warren’s Box Nation.

It also gives Hughes the chance to complete some unfinished business.

Back when they were teenagers, Nurse and Hughes faced off at Broad Plain in Bristol for a Junior ABA semi-final; Nurse gained a hotly-disputed points decision, a defeat that still wrankles.

“Soon after that fight Tyrone turned pro and I’ve never had my chance to gain revenge,” said Joe.

“It was a bad decision. I was two points ahead after the first two rounds and I felt the final round was pretty even. But they somehow marked it 7-0 in his favour which was just ridiculous and won him the fight.

“It was a close bout, but I’m sure I won it and it was very frustrating at the time.”

In Joe’s corner that night was Tony Stannard, the man behind the Malmesbury Amateur Boxing Club who was honoured in 2007 with an MBE for his services to the sport.

Stannard is currently battling serious illness and nothing would give Hughes greater pleasure than to dedicate a British title victory to the man who introduced him to boxing as an eight-year-old.

“Tony and I speak regularly,” said Joe. “He’s being very positive about his illness and he will never whinge to anyone as he is as tough as they come.

“He’s hanging in there and I know that to become the first British champ from Malmesbury would make him very proud.

“What Tony is going though is giving me extra inspiration to bring back the British title.”

Hughes, who regained the English title in his latest victory over Andy Keates in December, has had to battle his own clinical issues, but for which he may already have become a British champion.

He has a condition called Erb’s Palsy, a disability caused by nerve damage at birth, which left his right arm weaker and two and half inches shorter than his left.

It has meant that all the amateur and professional titles he has accumulated throughout a glittering career have come despite throwing 90 per cent of his punches with the stronger left hand.

Through the charity, the Erb’s Palsy Group, Hughes sometimes spends time talking to families whose children have the same defect, and proving to them what can be achieved.

The end of April is a huge week for British boxing with 90,000 heading to Wembley Stadium to watch the Anthony Joshua v Wladimar Klitschko world super heavyweight clash.

Seven days earlier Hughes fights for a small fraction of their purse money, but a British championship win live on TV would give this truly inspirational fighter some well-deserved national exposure – and help pay for his belated honeymoon.