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Hughie Fury-Michael Hunter World Title Eliminator Confirmed

Written by Shaun Brown on 30th May 2022.

Hughie Fury & Michael Hunter

Hughie Fury will fight Michael Hunter on July 2 at the AO Arena in Manchester.

The announcement came today via the Sky Sports Boxing Twitter feed which added that the heavyweight bout would also be a WBA eliminator:

In recent weeks BOXXER promoter Ben Shalom had all but confirmed the fight was on in what will be a crossroads moment in the careers of both men.

The current WBA rankings have Fury at four with Hunter two spots above. Whoever wins will land a shot against the winner of (WBA secondary champion) Trevor Bryan and (challenger) Daniel Dubois who fight on June 11 in Miami.

Fury, 27, has won his last three fights against Pavel Sour, Mariusz Wach and Christian Hammer, respectively, since losing to Alexander Povetkin in 2019. The narrow defeat to the Russian became the third loss on the Brit’s record having already dropped losses to Kubrat Pulev and Joseph Parker.

Hunter (20-1-2, 14 KOs) has only ever lost to Oleksandr Usyk, at cruiserweight, and holds wins over the likes of Alexander Ustinov, Martin Bakole and Sergey Kuzmin. The 33-year-old also drew against Povetkin on the Ruiz-Joshua 2 card in 2019. The American, however has since fought out a split draw against Jerry Forrest last time out.

β€œI take the fights everyone avoids” Fury (26-3, 15 KOs) said. β€œMichael Hunter has fought the best and is up there with the best. These are the fights I want to show who is the best fighter out there.

β€œI’m looking forward to this challenge. I believe I’m one of the best fighters in the world and this is another big fight to prove I stand with the top three in the world heavyweight division.”

After the BOXXER promotion is finished fans will be able to watch Mancunian legend Ricky Hatton take on Mexican icon Marco Antonio Barrera in an exhibition event. Broadcast details for that event are still to be finalised.