By Charles Brun: Michael Hunter is letting it be known that he’ll take the fight with WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury for free on December 5th, and he just wants the opportunity to beat him again. The talented 2012 U.S Olympian Hunter (18-1-1, 12 KOs) reveals that he defeated the 6’9″ Fury in the amateurs, and he’s ready to hand him another loss.
Unfortunately, Hunter, 32, is predicting that Fury will pick a soft job for his next fight in December, choosing either Agit Kabayel or Efe Kabayel. Both fighters are ranked low in the World Boxing Council’s top 15 rankings, and pose little in the way of a threat to the ‘Gypsy King.’
Top Rank promotes Kabayel and Ajagba
Kabayel and Ajagba are both with Top Rank, the same promotional company that Fury is signed with, so it makes it easy for them to pick one of those guys.
It’s better for Top Rank if Fury fights one of their own guys than if he goes outside the promotional company to a good heavyweight like Hunter, who isn’t signed with them.
Hunter believes that it’s Fury’s decision to take a soft opponent rather than Top Rank, as he doesn’t want to take a risky fight right now.
Fury will be cherry-picking the light-hitting Kabayel (20-0, 13 KOs) or the inexperienced or the very green Ajagba would give Fury an opponent that would be no threat to beating him.
It’s kind of surprising to the average fan that Fury would opt for an easy mark for his December 5th fight, but he’s got that payday ahead of him against Joshua. With Fury’s fragile chin, it would be too risky for him to take on a talented heavyweight like Hunter, Luis Ortiz, Oscar Rivas, or Andy Ruiz Jr.
Fury can’t afford to lose now because he’s on the precipice to getting a monstrous payday in a unification match against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) in 2021. With the mountain of green that Fury will be getting fighting Joshua, the last thing he wants is to take on a talented heavyweight like Hunter and wind up getting beaten.
ESPN’s ratings likely to be poor if Fury takes a soft job
Hunter has already proven in the past to have a knack for beating giants in the heavyweight division. He took down Martin Bakole, Alexander Ustinov, and Sergy Kuzmin.
“I think Agit Kabayel or Efe Ajagba because it’s easier to deal with when it comes to the business,” said Hunter to Pressboxpr about Fury likely to face one of those two fighters on December 5th.
“The number one thing is they’re not risking anything. Everyone is going to get a paycheck and no problems.”
If Fury fights Ajagba or Kabayel, ESPN’s ratings will likely be poor for his December 5th fight. It would be better for them if Fury opted to fight a household name like Hunter, and take the risk of losing to him again.
At least if Fury gets beaten, he’ll know where he stands in the pecking order in the heavyweight division.
I would fight for free, I’d fight Tyson Fury for absolutely nothing.,” said Hunter. “There’s a lot of budget being saved right there, and they still wouldn’t fight me.
“I think I pose more of a threat than his original opponent Deontay Wilder. I’m the best one on their list, but I can guarantee they’ll pick the easiest or softest opponent,” said Hunter.
Will Top Rank pick a cheaper opponent for Fury?
“I guarantee they’ll get a cheaper opponent in and it will be a lot easier, that’s just the world we live in,” said Hunter in predicting Fury takes an easy mark.
“I don’t think there’s going to be a fight with Fury because there are easier fights. They would rather have easier fights,” said Hunter.
It would be good if Top Rank surprised us by selecting a talented fighter like Hunter to face Fury rather than feeding him Ajagba or Kbayel.
But as Hunter says, this is business. They’re not going to put Fury in with someone that can potentially upset the applecart and ruin the Joshua match. Fury hasn’t fought anyone good yet during his career.
While many boxing fans made a big deal of Fury’s win over Deontay Wilder earlier this year, he was facing an injured fighter. Wilder’s sparring partner revealed that he suffered a bicep injury during the final weeks of training camp for that fight.
In the first Fury-Wilder fight, Fury was arguably knocked out in the 12th round. The referee gave him a count while he was snoozing on the canvas.
For Fury to take on Hunter, he would have to be willing to risk losing out on his big payday fight against Joshua in early next year. It doesn’t look like Fury wants to do that. He’s still in the celebratory mode over his seventh-round knockout win against the injured Wilder last February. Fighting Hunter would potentially snap Fury out of his reverie.