HUNI TO HUNTED
GOLD Coast heavyweight boxer Jamie Porter has vowed to take Justis Huni to dark places unfamiliar to the pin-up boy of Australian boxing when they meet in Townsville as the headline act of a fightcard littered with stars of the NRL.
Porter, 38, has boxed professionally for 15 years and said his experience in the sweet science’s dark arts would be enough to teach the national heavyweight champion a thing or two.
GOLD Coast heavyweight boxer Jamie Porter has vowed to take Justis Huni to dark places unfamiliar to the pin-up boy of Australian boxing when they meet in Townsville as the headline act of a fightcard littered with stars of the NRL on February 12.
Porter, 38, has boxed professionally for 15 years and said his experience in the sweet science’s dark arts would more than make up for any disadvantage in reach or power given up to the national heavyweight champion, 27 years his junior.
“I know Justis has been around for a long time in his amateur career but he’s only new to the (pro) game,” Porter said.
“The people he’s faced aren’t boxers. They haven’t taken him to the dark places I can take him.
“I don’t have a massive punch, I don’t have the fastest hands, but I do have experience.
“I’ve been up against a few freaks of nature (like Huni) in my time. I can drain him of his energy and take him into deep water where no one has taken him before.”
The New Zealand Army veteran has a professional record of 10-6 with five knockout victories.
He will step out of semiretirement to give Huni a stern opposition.
The 21-year-old Logan boxer has ripped through both of his first two opponents, knocking out Australian champ Faiga ‘Django’ Opelu in the seventh round to take his belt and then defended it with a four-round knockout of Cameroonian Arsene Fosso in December.
He is fast running out of opponents capable of challenging him on Australia soil, which is where promoter Dean Lonergan hopes Porter can help.
“With COVID it’s very hard to go overseas to get an opponent,” Porter’s trainer and local boxing legend Jamie Meyer said.
“They’re trying to dig out of the well in Australia and there’s not a lot of heavyweights here. For this Townsville fight they had no opponent.
“Jamie was semi-retired but Dean Lonergan rang up and said do you want to offer the fight to Jamie?
“I thought he’d say no but he said he was good to go. He’s a big underdog, but he’s got nothing to lose and a fighter with nothing to lose is a dangerous fighter.”
Porter said he was not breaking his retirement to be Huni’s punching bag on national television.
“I’m knocking on 40 years old but I ain’t going up there to lose,” he said.