By Henry Hunt: In March of last year, in round 2 of their IBF featherweight world title fight Philadelphia native Eric Hunter countered a miss from Lee Selby with a flashing left to the Jaw. Selby went down, and, for a moment it seemed as though we might be seeing someone a bit special.
A rapid switch hitter, with sharp hands and a mercurial style that is quite brilliant when in full flow, Hunter’s journey through the ranks had been twice disrupted by disqualifications and a loss to someone called Carlos Vinan.
The reason for these taints to his record became evident as he sauntered around the ring for the remainder of the fight, showing bursts of quality but quite simply not doing enough work to win the rounds whilst growing increasingly stroppy and despondent with the referee.
He lost 116-110 on two cards and 115-111 on the other, perhaps the margin being a harsh, but probably the correct decision. Aside from his obvious talent, what he showed that night was that regardless, you need discipline and work rate to win a fight. Right, well everyone knows that, however it remains infuriating to see obvious talent go to waste. Hunter is now 30, and for whatever reason hasn’t fought since the loss, he faces a difficult task to remain relevant at the very highest level of what is a featherweight division packed with quality.
Adrien Broner has also faced difficulties throughout his career (his social media reveals a complex character; having previously shared worrying suicidal thoughts) but looked fantastic in stopping a decent Ashley Theophane in his last outing. Having only lost to Shawn Porter and Marcos Maidana, he has a hugely respectable record. He fights the heavy handed Adrian Granados in his next fight, which I expect him to win, and has a realistic chance of going on to dominate an exciting super-lightweight division.
Aside from the steady Ricky Burns and the massively untested Indongo, it’s only really Terrance Crawford. On paper, that’s a superb matchup, and a sure chance for an erratic, mercurial fighter to take centre stage once more. With Gervonta Davis’ stunning knockout victory for the IBF super-featherweight world title – hopefully there are many more to come.