April Hunter has returned to boxing after a nightmare run of injury and disappointment.
She came back with a six-round points victory on Saturday and now wants to work her way into world title contention.
Hunter almost boxed Mary Spencer, now the WBA super-welterweight champion, before a last-minute injury ruled her out. Ill-fortune struck when a scheduled clash with Ema Kozin for the WBC and WBO super-welter titles fell through.
The Newcastle fighter though is convinced that now her luck must change. She thinks a bout with Mikaela Mayer or Lauren Price could happen in the future.
Hunter does expect Mayer to beat Spencer and hold titles at both welter and super-welterweight.
"I think Mikaela Mayer's work-rate's far too much. I personally think she'll be far too much for her. She might even stop her. Mary's old now, she is heavy handed so she'll be dangerous early on, but with work-rate and stuff like that I think it'll be a shutout performance," Hunter told Sky Sports.
"I'd love that [Mayer] fight. That would be a great fight for me. But let's just see."
Hunter added: "I believe Lauren is elite, elite, elite but I'd love to share the ring with her and listen, one punch changes everything. I do think Lauren has got a couple of things in her game which you could exploit. If that fight came about at super-welter, I would definitely take it.
"I know I do have the power to put people down. I think one punch can change anything."
For the Newcastle boxer it's still a triumph to simply get herself back in the ring. She'd been out of action since beating Kirstie Bavington in 2023.
"I was mandatory for the European [title]. I was waiting about for that, that didn't happen for the European. I ended up taking an opportunity in Canada as the B side against Mary Spencer," Hunter explained.
In her last spar before the Spencer fight she tore the UCL in her elbow and she could not get clearance to box.
"I trained for a while for that, that was a big fight," Hunter said. "Ema Kozin had beaten Hannah Rankin for the WBC, WBO [titles]. I remember getting the call: 'You've got the fight.' I'm crying, thinking all my dreams have come true.
"I trained for six months for that," she continued. "That fell through. You're talking 18 months. I had to make a comeback fight because I hadn't boxed for that long. I was going to jump on a York Hall bill, I was doing S&C with Savannah Marshall and Tom Aspinall and snapped my ACL in an S&C session six months ago. I've had to come back from that. It's been hell."
That athletic nightmare took a psychological toll. "Everything was going bad," she said. "You're losing sponsors. You're thinking I'm going to have to get a job, you haven't boxed for so long and then you're injured and then the injury's a potential career-ending one.
"I didn't even want to be here at one point," Hunter added. "It's just been really, really, really tough.
"I've also been diagnosed with ADHD, so that's a big thing as well. Dealing with this stuff, I feel emotions more than the normal person so it's been really hard to manage."
She's also been mourning close friend and fellow boxer Georgia O'Connor, who died from cancer.
"It's been a pretty heavy year," Hunter said. "The climb just begins now.
"Let's pray I get some good luck now."
