Undefeated boxer Hunter frustrated with waiting game

This summer will be four years since Michael Hunter represented the United States in the Olympics as a heavyweight. By now, the boxer from Las Vegas figured he would be ranked and fighting for world titles in the cruiserweight division.

Instead, he remains a seldom-used undercard fighter. And it is frustrating him to no end.

"I'm not a part-time fighter," Hunter said. "I'm used to staying busy. I want to be a world champion, but how can I do that when I'm fighting every five, six months?"

Hunter (10-0, seven knockouts) will return to the ring for the first time in four months when he fights an opponent to be determined on the Feb. 27 undercard at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, where Leo Santa Cruz will defend his world featherweight title against Kiko Martinez in the main event.

In his last fight on Oct. 13, Hunter stopped Jason Douglas in Shelton, Washington. Since then, it has been go to the gym, work out and wait.

"This is the hardest thing I've done," the 27-year-old said. "I always have to worry about ring rust because I never know when my next fight is.

"I was so used to fighting, fighting, fighting and winning, winning, winning. Now it's waiting, waiting, waiting. That's not what I expected my (professional) career to be. I don't have the luxury to pick and choose who I want to fight. If they put a guy in front of me, it's 'Let's go.'"

Santa Cruz preps

Santa Cruz (31-0, 17 KOs) is finishing preparations for his World Boxing Association defense against Martinez (35-6, 26 KOs) on a Showtime-televised card, and Santa Cruz expects Martinez to pressure him and try to get him out of sync.

"I think he's going to be the aggressor because he's shorter and has to fight that way," Santa Cruz said. "But I'm going to go forward and be the aggressor, too. If that's not working, I'll box him. We're going to do what we need to do to win the fight."

Santa Cruz, a world champion at bantamweight, super bantamweight and featherweight, said if he defeats Martinez, he wants to fight the winner of the Carl Frampton-Scott Quigg super bantamweight title fight. Frampton is the International Boxing Federation 122-pound champ, and Quigg is the WBA super bantamweight champion.

"I see it as a 50-50 fight," Santa Cruz said. "It's a tough fight for both of them. I think whoever catches the other guy first will get the victory. They both can hit, and they both have great skills."

Diaz on Ward undercard

North American Boxing Federation featherweight champion JoJo Diaz (19-0, 11 KOs) will face Puerto Rico's Jayson Velez (23-1, 16 KOs) on the undercard of the March 26 Andre Ward-Sullivan Barrera light heavyweight fight in Oakland, California.

The 10-round fight will open the HBO telecast. Diaz was a teammate of Hunter's on the 2012 London Olympic team.

Porter's fancy office

Welterweight contender Shawn Porter's training facility has been praised for its high-tech apparatus. But the facility, located on the site of the old Pound-for-Pound Gym on South Paradise Road, is only a rental at the moment.

According to Porter's father and lead trainer, Kenny, they are renting the building, which they have rebranded as the Porter Hy-Performance Center, and are being allowed to make improvements.

"It's an old building, but we're making some improvements to it," said Kenny Porter, noting he has an option to buy and that a new locker room, a recovery room from workouts and new showers are being added. "It suits our needs perfectly."

Porter, who is originally from Ohio but has lived in Las Vegas for the past six years, fights WBA champ Keith Thurman on March 12 in Connecticut on a CBS-televised card.

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj