Kubrat Pulev earned a win over Mahmoud Charr back in December, and the decision victory the Bulgarian scored saw him pick up a piece of the WBA heavyweight title. Now, at age 44, Pulev has received news that a fight between himself and Michael Hunter has been ordered to go to purse bids, this on May 27.
Pulev vs. Hunter ordered—but does anyone actually want it?
The bidding war will take place in Houston, Texas, but there might not be too much bidding action with this fight. In truth, though veterans Pulev and Hunter could maybe surprise us all by putting on a good, watchable tussle, news of this ordered fight will make plenty of fans groan. The ‘regular’ WBA strap Pulev holds means little, and fans of course know the real heavyweight champion of the WBA (and the WBC, WBO, and Ring Magazine) is Oleksandr Usyk.
Pulev, 32-3(14) seems to have been around the sport forever, and he has been a good servant of the game. But against Charr, “The Cobra” looked terribly slow and quite easy to hit. At this stage of his career, nobody could blame Pulev for trying to pick up as much money as he can in his final fights. It’s not clear how much money a Pulev-Hunter fight will generate if and when it takes place, but in Bulgaria, Pulev remains a star and a hero, so if the fight happens there he could earn a nice payday, with a large crowd showing up at a big arena.
Hunter’s career stalls—and this won’t fix it
Hunter, the younger man by eight years at 36, is currently 24-1-2(17) with the sole loss coming at the hands of Usyk, this in a cruiserweight bout. Hunter looked like a promising heavyweight a few years ago, this as he defeated the likes of Martin Bakole and Sergey Kuzmin. But lately, Californian Hunter has done almost nothing of real note, with his points win over Cassius Chaney being the highlight for him as far as the last three-and-a-half years of his career are concerned.
Again, not too many fans are going to get excited about this fight – and Pulev vs. Hunter does, the more we look at it, have potential stinker written all over it – but it seems it will happen later on this year.