“It’s hammer time!” Hank Lundy said as he signed off with me on a Wednesday afternoon over the phone. Lundy, the former lightweight perennial contender, who always seemed to find lapses in concentration that derailed the greatness many saw in him, is finally beginning to put it all together in a new weight class, Jr. Welterweight. Lundy, who recently fought Olusegun Ajose on ESPN2’s Friday Night Fights, not only defeated Ajose, he outclassed him.
“I made a top 10 guy look like he didn’t deserve to be in the ring with me,” Lundy stated matter of factly. As Lundy explained, he felt drained by the weight cut to lightweight. At times he would cut as much as 20 lbs to get down to weight and he began to notice that his power was not there as much. “If you look at my record all of my knockouts early in my career where at 140. At 135 lbs I wasn’t as comfortable.”
“They call me, Mr.ESPN and I am fine with that, but now I want the big money,” Lundy continued. This was a change from the Lundy who was coming off an odd fight against Ray Beltran who will be fighting Ricky Burns for the belt shortly. Lundy stated that it was simply a lack of focus and too much going on outside the ring for him to be prepared for Beltran when they fought last summer. He wishes Beltran the best and considers him a great fighter, who if he got the chance to fight him again – he would stop.
The same sentiment was shared for John Molina Jr. who also fought this past weekend. Molina Jr. beat Lundy with a one punch KO and then never gave Lundy a rematch. He told ESPN he was past that point in his career. Lundy simply explained, “Let Molina stay at 135 lbs. If he wants to come up to 140 lbs I will stop him, but I am not going down to beat him.”
When asked about Lucas Matthysse and why he called out the top Jr. Welterweight contender who will be fighting on the biggest PPV card of the year against Danny Garcia, Lundy explained, “We were supposed to fight in January. Everyone is afraid of the big, bad wolf, but guess what? I’m not!” The fight Lundy is talking about is the fight that turned into a first round knockout of Mike Dallas Jr who filled in on short notice for Lundy, who was pulled from the fight due to undisclosed reasons. “You saw what I did to Ajose! Lucas was having fits against Ajose. He was having trouble with him and made him look foolish, [you] don’t think that could happen to him.” It’s a valid point for as good as Matthysse has looked we still have yet to see him tested against a true boxer puncher as Lamont Peterson, the IBF Jr Welterweight champion, was supposed to be that, but instead proved to be no test.
Speaking of Lamont Peterson, this is the man Lundy wants next. “I know Barry Hunter! I think they would take the fight, because they think they could catch me moving up in weight and get in a win. I don’t want to say it would be a mistake, but…” Lundy left the sentence unanswered. The sentiment is that Lundy wants a belt and he wants it bad. Lundy has gone most of his career without a lot of respect or attention and the belt is something that Lundy seeks as crucial milestone. “The belt that is all I want. I feel I did enough for a world title,” Lundy continued. As I would riffle off names of anyone from Zab Judah to Karim Mayfield I got the same response from Lundy, “Yep. I would fight them!”
As for his relationship with boxing superstar Adrien Broner he explained it simply, “No one has ever beaten up Hammerin’ Hank ever and I have been to three training camps with Broner that should tell you all you need to know.” Lundy who explained that when Broner and he are in the ring together it is two world champion level fighters going at it. He was working with Broner as recently as Broner’s last fight against Paulie Malignaggi in what became one of the oddest war of words ever in boxing history, but not in a good way. As for whether Lundy will be on the next Bandcamp video with Adrien Broner and his rap persona entourage, Lundy said, “I might do the two step, but that’s about it.”
Lundy who has spent his whole career with a smaller promotion/independent has recently been rumored to being moving to one of the big two promotions and with his connection to Broner and his quest to fight LaMont Peterson for the belt, speculation had been that he may be heading to Golden Boy Promotions. Lundy, who would not comment on the rumor, only said, “At the end of July I will have big news to release to the public and it will be major!” Lundy was unable to go into detail on this vague statement due to the legality around the announcement he is hinting at. We might make the assumption that Lundy could be in the process of taking his talents to Golden Boy and receiving a late fall match up against LaMont Peterson in Atlantic City. Peterson has been trying to push hard to get a fight back in his hometown of Washington DC. Nonetheless, it appears that Lundy is finally getting the push that he has always wanted along with putting everything together in a way that makes him a viable threat to the stacked jr. welterweight division.
