April Hunter: “I have a big year planned, and hopefully, I’ll get backed properly and get back to where I need to be.”   

April Hunter: “I have a big year planned, and hopefully, I’ll get backed properly and get back to where I need to be.”   

I was ringside in July 2023, when April Hunter got revenge over the only fighter to defeat her as a professional. The Manchester Arena played host to Hunter beating Kirstie Bavington on points. A 7th round knockdown was the difference as Hunter edged it on the cards by a single point. A 76-75 scorecard gave the North-East fighter the win and allowed her to reverse the previous loss she suffered to the former European champion in 2021.

Hunter would have hoped she would move on to bigger and better things. But the 30-year-old had what she describes as a “Run from hell.” Hunter didn’t fight again for over two years.

But April Hunter is now back. She won every round of a six-round comeback fight against Bojana Libiszewska at the Rainton Meadows Arena, Houghton-le-Spring, in October.

Hunter (8-1) has suffered more than most during that extended ring hiatus. “It was too long,” Hunter told me over Zoom. “It was torturous. A lot of it was due to injuries, and also just being let down with fights.

“After I beat Kirstie, I was mandatory for the European title. It went to purse bids, but nobody bid for it, then that kind of slipped away and fell through. I was then hearing all these big things, so instead of just staying busy on small hall shows, I was getting all these false promises that something was coming that never came.”

But then her luck was seemingly changing. Until injury said otherwise. “I then got a phone call to box Mary Spencer in Canada,” Hunter says. “I was sparring with Savannah (Marshall) on the Wednesday before I flew out on the Saturday, and I tore my UCL (Ulnar Collateral Ligament). I still went over to fight her, but they are really strict with their medicals, and they didn’t pass me to box. On the day of the press conference, I had to see a Doctor, and he saw all the bruising on my elbow, and he said I’m not passing you to box with that.”

But Hunter still had hope. However, a planned fight with Ema Kozin for the WBC and WBO super-welterweight title fell by the wayside due to the usual boxing politics many fighters have to navigate around. Hunter then planned just to stay busy. But even that was denied her. “I then went to fight a six-rounder in London, just to get my world ranking, and I snapped my ACL. It was just bad luck after bad luck.”

Many would have understood if Hunter had simply walked away from the sport. But that was never in her mind. “I never thought of giving up,” Hunter relayed to me. “I just thought my career would be taken away from me. I had other things going on in the background as well. I didn’t really know what was going to happen. But I am back boxing, and I am happy.”

“It did affect me mentally, and I had other stuff going on as well,” Hunter added. “But it just makes you stronger. It makes you a lot stronger as a person. I am just grateful to be here. I love boxing. I just hope I get the chance to run with it.”

April Hunter hopes now that the run of bad luck is firmly behind her. Hunter returned with that important victory, and she was pleased with her recent victory over Libiszewska. “It was good,” Hunter says of that win. “I probably fought the best I have ever boxed.”

Despite everything the sport and life have thrown at her, Hunter has never lost the ambition to reach the pinnacle of her craft. If everything goes to plan, 2026 will be a year of titles.

“The plan is an eight-rounder, and then a title fight in the middle of the year. I am probably going to go for the British and then a world title. That’s my plan for next year. I have a big year planned, and hopefully, I’ll get backed properly and get back to where I need to be.”