Justis Huni to hit the pros before Olympic tilt

Australian Olympic medal hopeful Justis Huni has decided to turn pro ahead of the Tokyo Games.

The Tokyo Olympics have been postponed for a year to 2021 following the fallout from the global coronavirus pandemic.

Olympic boxing was limited to amateurs until a ruling in June 2016 allowed professionals to box at that year’s Rio Games.

Under new rules passed by Boxing Australia, athletes that have qualified for the Olympic Games can have up to 10 professional fights and still be eligible to compete at the Olympics.

Super heavyweight Huni plans to stay busy in the pro ranks before going for gold in Tokyo next year.

“I can’t wait to get a taste of the professional ranks and the longer rounds,” Huni told the Courier Mail.

“I can hopefully get four to six pro fights in before I go to the Olympics and that’ll be a huge help to my development.

“I wasn’t too disappointed when I heard about the Olympics being put back a year because it gives me more time to prepare for the Olympic stage.”

Boxing could resume domestically in Australia in the coming months. There have also been preliminary discussions between the Australian and New Zealand governments about relaxing travel restrictions between the two countries, where the death toll is just four people per million.

Huni is hopeful of making his pro debut by August and says he doesn’t care who he fights.

“I don’t mind who the opponent is. I just want to try out new stuff we’ve been working on and put it into action because it’s different doing it in a gym and doing it in a fight situation,” he said.

Huni won the gold medal at the Youth World Boxing Championships in 2016 and claimed the bronze at the World Boxing Championships last year.

The 21-year-old prodigy is trained by his father Rocki at the family’s Sunnybank Hills home in Brisbane.

“This is where he started — underneath this house,” Rocki told the Courier Mail.

“He started boxing when he was seven but he’s been around boxing all his life. Before he could crawl he was in the gym rolling around.

“I’ve seen it before with kids coming through and then they get to a certain age and they plateau and have other interests, but he (Justis) seems to have kept on going and he’s focused on the Olympics and the pros and making it to the top.”