Tiny frame, big heart
Fan-favorite Lundy searches for
benchmark victory against Cintron
By Michael Parente
PROVIDENCE – Hank Lundy caught boxing fever at an early age. Eighteen or nineteen, to be exact.
His first opponent – a would-be schoolyard bully in Philadelphia – caught an uppercut to the chin.
“I put him to sleep,” Lundy recalled.

Fearing the repercussions, Lundy ran home to his uncle, who told him to put his quick hands to use.

“People ain’t fighting people – they’re shooting people!” he told Lundy. “So get your butt in the gym!”
Lundy took his uncle’s advice and hasn’t left since. Over the past seven years, he’s fought many uphill battles in and outside the ring, whether it was the emotional sacrifice to help send his younger sister to college or the daily struggle put food in his daughters’ mouths.

Now the diminutive 5-foot-6 welterweight known as “Hammerin’ Hank” is preparing for the fight of his life – an 8-round showdown against unbeaten prospect Jason Cintron at the Prudential Center in Newark on April 24.
Never one to back down from a challenge, Lundy promises Cintron (10-0, 3 knockouts) will wind up in the same spot as that schoolyard bully seven years ago.

“I guarantee this fight will be over in three rounds,” Lundy said earlier this week while training at Manfredo’s Gym in Pawtucket, R.I., with Peter Manfredo Sr. “I hold no punches in the ring. When you look at my resume, I’m fighting people that can fight. Who has he fought? There’s a buzz going around that he’s planning to knock me out. You have, what, three knockouts on paper? Look at my knockout ratio. Look at the type of guys I’m fighting.
“He’s not on my level. He’s nowhere in the same league as me.”

The pain and passion in Lundy’s voice comes from his strict upbringing in the City of Brotherly Love, where he was taught to look out for others, not just himself. With a chance to attend Kutztown University in Pennsylvania on a partial football scholarship, Lundy learned his aunt couldn’t afford to send both he and his sister, Muneerah, to college.
“Send my little sister,” Lundy told his aunt, “and I’ll find another way.”

Unable to pay for school, Lundy chose boxing as his career path, moving quickly through the amateur rankings. He made his mark with a victory at the Pennsylvania Golden Gloves Tournament in 2003 and took home a silver medal at the nationals two years later before turning pro in 2006.

Since signing with Jimmy Burchfield’s Classic Entertainment & Sports, Lundy is now 12-0-1 as a professional with six knockouts. He’s won his last two fights since suffering a draw against Darnell Jiles Jr. in March of 2008 and is looking to hand Cintron the first loss of his career.

“One thing about me, I’m willing to let it all hang in the ring,” Lundy said. “I’m fighting for my four little girls. I’m ready to die in that ring. My question to him is, ‘Would you die in that ring? Would you leave everything you have in that ring? Who are you fighting for?’

“I’m not just fighting for me, so when I go in that ring I have every intention of hurting this man and making him feel the pain I’m going through right now – the training, the discipline that I have to do and him trying to take food out of my little girls’ mouths.”

Lundy’s daughters – Amiriah, 1; Adriana, 2; Amari, 4; and Aniyah, 6 – are his source of motivation on those cold mornings when he doesn’t feel like getting out of bed and going to the gym, but those days have been few and far in between since boxing became his full-time occupation seven years ago.

Football was his first love – he played linebacker in high school and used to weigh around 160 pounds at his peak – until he realized he could stand up for himself despite his limited size.
“Growing up in school, you had to know how to fight,” Lundy said. “The bigger guys pick on the shorter guys and you had to stand up for yourself.

“I always could fight and my grandpa from my mom’s side was a boxer and then on my dad’s side he was a boxer, too, so I always had the fighting skills in my genes. I just never knew it was there until I started talking to different people in the family and it all came around that I had it naturally.”

He’s got the personality, too, which he recently put on display during an impromptu sparring session with New Hampshire welterweight Danny O’Connor at Manfredo’s Gym.
As the second ticked away during the third and final round, Lundy began playfully taunting his opponent. 

“Come on! Thirty seconds! Make me work!” 
O’Conner landed a short right hand to the body and tried to follow with a sweeping left hook upstairs.  
Too slow. 

Lundy spun out of the way and continued jawing at O’Connor while backpedaling toward the center of the ring. 
“Come on!” he yelled as he raised both gloves to his chest. “We ain’t done yet!” 

The innocuous barbs aimed at O’Connor pale in comparison to the verbal war Lundy has initiated with Cintron, who is known primarily as the younger brother of former IBF middleweight champion Kermit Cintron – an accomplished high-school wrestler with 27 knockouts as a professional.

“He gets a lot of hype because who his brother is,” Lundy said of Cintron. “He never fought nobody. This is the thing I’m saying – you’ve got to crawl before you can walk and I think they made a big mistake by choosing to take this fight.”

Cintron’s manager, Marshall Kauffman, took note of Lundy’s tough talk and issued his own challenge.

“He’s got a big mouth,” Kauffman said. “I hope he can back it up.”

The two have yet to face any common opponents, though Kauffman trained Jiles Jr., who fought Lundy to a draw last year in New York – a verdict Lundy considers “a legitimate win” since it occurred just outside of Jiles’ hometown of Rochester.

Kauffman disagrees.

“In reality, Darnell beat him and they called it a draw on national TV,” Kauffman said. “Even all the TV networks – Teddy Atlas said it himself – thought Darnell won the fight. For him to say what he’s saying, I think he’s saying a whole lot just to hype himself up. Sometimes people get scared and that’s their way of talking [themselves] into the fight.

“Hank is a very quality fighter. I think he has good hand speed and good footwork, but he’s a little awkward at times. I personally think Jason Cintron’s going to be the stronger fighter and that’s what [Lundy] doesn’t see.”

While Kauffman suggests the younger Cintron is an overall better boxer than his older brother, Lundy’s convinced the siblings share similar traits – physically and emotionally. After losing his title to Antonio Margarito via knockout in 2005, Kermit Cintron cried in the ring. Lundy’s predicting a similar response from the younger Cintron.
“I know that same gene he has he will have, too, and I guarantee I’ll make him cry in the ring,” Lundy said. “Look forward to seeing that or hearing about it!”

One way or another, there’ll be plenty of raw emotion on display when Lundy and Cintron butt heads April 24. Lundy’s inspirational background and vibrant personality have made him an overnight fan-favorite in and outside of his hometown.
The scrappy, 5-foot-9 welterweight is now in for the fight of his life next month against Cintron. That classic uppercut might come in handy.

“I know this fight right here is going to make me or break me,” Lundy said. “I have every good intention on this being my year where I come out and have a belt this year. I’m making a statement this year. No more playing around.
“This is another step up the ladder. To let you know, ‘Hammerin’’ Hank ain’t going nowhere. I’m here to stay and whoever you put in front of me, I’m going to beat or knock him out.”