Henry 'Hank' Lundy To Make Ring Return Soon, Still Has Title Aspirations
Updated: Jun 26, 2020
From 135 to 140 pounds, 'Hammerin’ Hank Lundy (31-8-1, 14 KO) has experienced competition at the highest level of the sport. Now, at 36 years of age, Lundy continues to fight on and hopes to compete for a world title again in the near future.
The former world title challenger has won his last 2 bouts in a row, with his most recent being a unanimous decision win over Ezequiel Victor Fernandez in February. But although boxing was temporarily held up shortly after due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lundy has still been in the gym preparing for his next fight.
“Everything is going good. This has given me a chance to get deep into my training, because I never stopped training,” Lundy said in an interview with ESBR. “...The main gym that I trained at [temporarily shut down], but I got other people that I deal with, going to their gym, and getting good sparring in too. I was recently sparring with Shakur Stevenson, so I came down and helped him, giving him a little work for his fight that he just fought.”
On June 13, high-level boxing made it’s return, as WBO featherweight champion Shakur Stevenson competed in a non-title bout against Felix Caraballo, stopping him in the sixth round. Lundy believes his knowledge could be beneficial for young champions coming up like Stevenson. “It was great work. I’m a vet in this game so I can teach these young guys a lot,” Lundy said.
Lundy has shared the ring with some of boxing’s best, including: John Molina Jr., David Diaz, Ray Beltran, Viktor Postol, Thomas Dulorme, Mauricio Herrera, and most notably, current WBO welterweight champion and pound-for-pound talent Terence “Bud” Crawford. In 2016, Lundy challenged Crawford for the WBO belt at light welterweight, headlining an HBO World Championship Boxing card in the theater at Madison Square Garden.
“That was my first rodeo as a big-time main event fight on HBO,” Lundy recalled. “It felt good. It’s big. It lets you know that all your hard work isn’t going unnoticed. A lot of people tried to get to where I was at, being the main event Madison Square Garden. After three to four days [of tickets being on sale] the fight was sold out, so that let me know that Hank Lundy is one of the big players in the sport, I got a name and all my accomplishments never went unnoticed.”
Unfortunately for Lundy, he lost the fight via fifth round TKO. While Lundy gave Crawford his respect and due credit for winning, he believes that he was fighting a guy who severely outweighed him.
“Well, I’ll put it like this: when I fought Crawford, he was the bigger guy, even the commentators knew that. It was like a lightweight versus a welterweight. The night of the fight he was 160 lbs, I was 145,” Lundy recalled. “But I was able to accomplish a lot. I was winning the fight! There was one small thing I did wrong, and I paid for it. But at the end of the day, I’m a fighter. I’ve been in there with guys that can punch. But I feel as though I put out a lot of energy trying to get him. I put out a lot and he got me.”
In the years since his world title opportunity with Crawford, has gone 3-2 in his last five fights. His last defeat came at the hands of up and coming prospect Avery Sparrow, who outpointed Lundy through ten rounds winning a majority decision. So, in order to get to the pinnacle of the sport like he did in 2016, he’d most likely have to go through some high-level talent at 135 (which is where he wishes to compete from now on) and fight the likes Ryan Garcia and WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis.
In typical Hammerin’ Hank fashion, he had quite a bit to say about those two.
“I’m not on the bandwagon man. You know at the end of the day, he’s gotta see a real fighter like me, and Golden Boy knows what’s up. I heard [Ryan] put out my name one time and I jumped right on him, but he’s a puppet. I told Golden Boy control your puppet before I cut his strings. He’s dealing with a big dog now!”
“[Garcia and Davis] are good names but look at their records, who have they fought?!,” Lundy said. “Compare their record against my record. I wasn’t spoonfed, none of that, I had to fight my way to the top, and I made it big doing that. So I wanna know if those guys can do what Hank Lundy did, come from nothing and make it big. And I think not. I had no help. I fought my way to the top. I’m the realest in this game man! I fight! Some guys get handpicked opponents, I was thrown in there with live wires, guys who can fight, undefeated fighters. I already fought like five or six of them and you never heard of them again after being in the ring with Hank Lundy!”
But before he finds himself in the ring with one of those fighters, he’ll most likely need a return tune-up bout in the new COVID-19 era of boxing. Lundy says a ring return is being targeted for August 8th, with a possible WBU (World Boxing Union) minor belt on the line.
“I’m just trying to stay ready, and once I get the word, I’ll be locked in,” says Lundy.