Michael Hunter is a former men’s U.S. Olympian but has never really gotten his shot at the top of the sport. Hunter, one of the best cruiserweight of his era lost his only professional fight to Oleksandr Usyk which was a competitive fight that saw Hunter lose a unanimous twelve-round decision to one of the best fighters of this era. Despite turning pro in 2013, Hunter oddly only has twenty-three fights, a strangely low number for a fighter as talented as himself who has a decade in the sport.
The last five years have been a blur for Michael Hunter. Hunter has bounced between Matchroom Boxing, a brief stint with Triller, and now recently talked to ProBoxTV for his work with the upstart boxing organization, Team Combat League. A team-based combat fighting event in which different cities have different teams, fighters fight for one round, that round is scored and with eighteen total rounds happen. Once, the final bell rings the judges add up the scores, and one city wins as opposed to a fighter as the fight doesn’t go to your boxing record. Michael Hunter is the most marquee fighter yet to join the organization, so far. Recently, ProBoxTV caught up with Hunter to get his thoughts on Anthony Joshua, who recently got a twelve-round decision over Jermaine Franklin to start the month of April.
Hunter, who has been a critic of many of the heavyweights of his era, out of the competitive spirit, of being in the division now seems to be an elder statesman of the division who is speaking on various subjects with perspective. For example, he took to Twitter to praise a man he beat prior in Martin Bakole - now Hunter is giving context to what might be deeply troubling Anthony Joshua in the present moment.
“It's kind of really hard to say, I think that mostly [that] Anthony Joshua…has a lot of stress on him,” said Hunter when talking exclusively to ProBoxTV. “He is like the face of boxing [in the United Kingdom] so I know that there's a lot of different pressures [on him and pressure] I haven't even experienced.”
Though Hunter has never had a nation behind him, Hunter now has a company behind him as he won his one-round fights against Norman Neely and Hasim Rahman Jr., on Thursday night for Team Combat League, as Hunter is the most well-known fighter on Dewey Cooper’s team, the Las Vegas Hustle. The fights which were streamed on YouTube have been an acquired taste, but seeing a world-class fighter like Hunter in the organization was a game-changer, or at least to me. Hunter is a formidable opponent for any world champion and sparred the best in the world. Though Hunter has never fought for an entire country like Joshua, maybe some of this perspective comes from the fact that he is now the face of a promotional company.
“I think that once he gets out his head he'll come back to himself,” said Hunter. “I think he's a great fighter, and I think that he just needs to get back and change, some of his mental tactics.”
ProBox TV’s Ben Blackwell wrote a fantastic story last week detailing heavy rumors that Anthony Joshua could be facing Deontay Wilder in December of this year. If that fight were to happen it would happen in Saudi Arabia and potentially could be a part of an all-heavyweight super-fight card that would possibly change the way we look at fight promotion if it were to happen. In a viral video circulating the internet Joshua when speaking to someone who this reporter is unaware of all, but confirms that he is going to face Anthony Joshua, given nothing bizarre happens from now until then.
