Michael Hunter has welcomed a ‘beautiful’ battle with Carlos Takam, but would prefer to face the former world title challenger in January instead of December.
The American heavyweight had been named as a possible opponent for Takam on the undercard for the Dillian Whyte-Derek Chisora rematch on December 22, live on Sky Sports Box Office, after Hunter produced an impressive knockout win over Alexander Ustinov in Monte Carlo.
The Las Vegas-based fighter would like to appear on The O2 bill, but admits he needs a little more preparation time for Takam after late stoppage wins over Martin Bakole and Ustinov within a few weeks.
“I definitely would like to come back, December 22, it just has to make sense,” Hunter told Sky Sports.
“I fought two fights at kind of short notice, in a short period of time, with only a month within each other apart. If it all makes sense, I’ll see you guys on December 22 for sure.
“I would love that [Carlos Takam] fight, that’s a beautiful fight for me to have. On December 22, I feel I would need a little more time, just because of the two fights I’ve already done, and stuff like that.
“But man, if I could get Carlos Takam, even if they were able to push it back to January, I would love to take that fight.”
Promoter Eddie Hearn is still hopeful that Hunter would be tempted to continue his red-hot run against Takam.
“Yeah, that’s the fight we wanted, Hunter against Takam,” said Hearn.
“I’m not sure how keen Hunter is to dive in with Takam, or his training team. It’s a tough fight. He’s coming off the back of two impressive wins at heavyweight. Does he want to roll the dice for No 3?
“It looks like Takam will definitely be on, in a big heavyweight fight. Whether that’s Michael Hunter? That’s all down to you. Let’s see if he wants to come and party with us on December 22. Takam-Hunter is a great fight, and we look forward to a great night of boxing.”
Despite a size and weight disadvantage, Hunter dominated Ustinov from the first bell, and was satisfied with his ninth-round knockout win.
“I got the job done, that’s all I can say,” said Hunter. “I would have liked it to be a little prettier, but that’s going to come with time.
“Considering all the adversity that I had to go through, I would say a B.”
