Justis Huni (born 4 April 1999) is an Australian professional boxer. He has held the Australian

heavyweight Heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports and professional wrestling. Boxing Professional Boxers who weigh over are considered heavyweights by 3 of the 4 major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the Wo ...

title since 2020. As an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

, he won a bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships.

Early life

Huni was born on 4 April 1999 in Meadowbrook, a suburb of Logan City, in the metropolitan area of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. He is of Tongan, Swedish, Samoan and Dutch descent. His first sporting love was

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

where he began playing for the Souths Sunnybank Magpies as a child but gave away the sport at the age of eight to pursue a career in boxing.

Amateur career

World Championships result

Yekaterinburg 2019 *First round: Defeated Cristian Salcedo (Colombia) 5–0 *Second round: Defeated Nigel Paul (Trinidad and Tobago) RSC *Quarter-finals: Defeated Mahammad Abdullayev (Azerbaijan) 5–0 *Semi-finals: Defeated by

Kamshybek Kunkabayev Kamshybek Kunkabayev (born 18 November 1991) is a Kazakhstani professional boxer. As an amateur, he won a silver medal at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships, and bronze at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Amateur career Olympic result Tokyo 2020 *R ...

(Kazakhstan) W/O

Professional career

Early career

On 22 October 2020, Huni made his professional debut against Australian heavyweight champion, Faiga Opelu. Huni dominated throughout the bout and in the seventh round, he secured victory after his opponent's corner threw in the towel to protect Opelu from further damage. On 3 December 2020, Huni fought for the second time as a professional against Arsene Fosso. After controlling the opening three rounds, referee Phil Austin called a halt to the fight in the fourth round after Fosso took a number of heavy blows from Huni. Huni had three more professional fights in the first half of 2021, knocking out Jack Maris on 10 April and defeating Christian Tsoye by unanimous decision on 26 May to retain his Australian heavyweight title. His most publicised fight took place on 16 June, when Huni entered the ring against ex-rugby league player, turned professional boxer,

Paul Gallen Paul Gallen (born 14 August 1981) is an Australian professional boxer and former professional rugby league footballer who played as a and forward and captained the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the NRL to their maiden NRL Premiership in 2016. ...

. In what was a bruising encounter, Huni controlled the fight and overcame his 39-year-old opponent in the 10th round after knocking him to the ground. The referee declared the fight over with Huni improving his record to 5-0 while handing Gallen his first defeat. Huni was set to represent Australia at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in Tokyo in the super-heavyweight division but was ruled out due to injury. On October 28, 2023 in Cancun, Mexico, Huni was scheduled to face

Andrew Tabiti Omotunde Tabiti (born September 20, 1989), better known as Andrew Tabiti, is an American professional boxer. He challenged once for the vacant IBF cruiserweight title in June 2019. As of February 2021, he is ranked as the world’s fifth best a ...

for the WBA International heavyweight title. Huni won the fight easily. On March 8, 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Huni defeated Kevin Lerena by unanimous decision.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Huni, Justis 1999 births Living people Australian male boxers Boxers from Brisbane AIBA World Boxing Championships medalists Super-heavyweight boxers Australian people of Dutch descent Australian sportspeople of Samoan descent Australian people of Swedish descent Australian sportspeople of Tongan descent Sportsmen from Queensland