April Hunter has returned to boxing after a nightmare run of harm and disappointment.
She got here again with a six-round factors victory on Saturday and now needs to work her approach into world title rivalry.
Hunter virtually boxed Mary Spencer, now the WBA super-welterweight champion, earlier than a last-minute harm dominated her out. Sick-fortune struck when a scheduled conflict with Ema Kozin for the WBC and WBO super-welter titles fell by means of.
The Newcastle fighter although is satisfied that now her luck should change. She thinks a bout with Mikaela Mayer or Lauren Value may occur sooner or later.
Hunter does count on Mayer to beat Spencer and maintain titles at each welter and super-welterweight.
“I think Mikaela Mayer’s work-rate’s far too much. I personally think she’ll be far too much for her. She might even stop her. Mary’s old now, she is heavy handed so she’ll be dangerous early on, but with work-rate and stuff like that I think it’ll be a shutout performance,” Hunter informed Sky Sports activities.
“I’d love that [Mayer] fight. That would be a great fight for me. But let’s just see.”
Hunter added: “I believe Lauren is elite, elite, elite but I’d love to share the ring with her and listen, one punch changes everything. I do think Lauren has got a couple of things in her game which you could exploit. If that fight came about at super-welter, I would definitely take it.
“I do know I do have the facility to place folks down. I believe one punch can change something.”
For the Newcastle boxer it’s still a triumph to simply get herself back in the ring. She’d been out of action since beating Kirstie Bavington in 2023.
Hunter dropped and beat Bavington of their second combat
“I was mandatory for the European April Hunter targets Mikaela Mayer and Lauren Price after coming through nightmare run | ‘It’s been hell’. I was waiting about for that, that didn’t happen for the European. I ended up taking an opportunity in Canada as the B side against Mary Spencer,” Hunter defined.
In her final spar earlier than the Spencer combat she tore the UCL in her elbow and she or he couldn’t get clearance to field.
“I trained for a while for that, that was a big fight,” Hunter stated. “Ema Kozin had beaten Hannah Rankin for the WBC, WBO [titles]. I remember getting the call: ‘You’ve got the fight.’ I’m crying, thinking all my dreams have come true.
“I skilled for six months for that,” she continued. “That fell by means of. You are speaking 18 months. I needed to make a comeback combat as a result of I hadn’t boxed for that lengthy. I used to be going to leap on a York Corridor invoice, I used to be doing S&C with Savannah Marshall and Tom Aspinall and snapped my ACL in an S&C session six months in the past. I’ve needed to come again from that. It has been hell.”
Mikaela Mayer is one in every of Hunter’s targets
That athletic nightmare took a psychological toll. “Everything was going bad,” she stated. “You’re losing sponsors. You’re thinking I’m going to have to get a job, you haven’t boxed for so long and then you’re injured and then the injury’s a potential career-ending one.
“I did not even need to be right here at one level,” Hunter added. “It is simply been actually, actually, actually robust.
“I’ve also been diagnosed with ADHD, so that’s a big thing as well. Dealing with this stuff, I feel emotions more than the normal person so it’s been really hard to manage.”
She’s additionally been mourning shut good friend and fellow boxer Georgia O’Connor, who died from most cancers.
“It’s been a pretty heavy year,” Hunter stated. “The climb just begins now.
“Let’s pray I get some good luck now.”
