Justis Huni’s preparations for his rematch on December 6 with New Zealand’s Kiki Leutele have been threatened by his new trainer Keri Fiu collapsing and entering intensive care.
The heavyweight fights for the first time since his first defeat – in June by England’s Fabio Wardley – against Leutele on the undercard of his fellow Australian Jai Opetaia’s IBF cruiserweight title fight with Huseyin Cinkara at the Gold Coast Convention Centre on Australia’s Gold Coast.
Whether Fiu will join him, however, appears unlikely. During a training session on Wednesday Fiu – who succeeded Mark Wilson as his trainer – reportedly collapsed when he fell off of his training bike and to the floor.
The 26-year-old Huni and his strength-and-conditioning trainer succeeded in resuscitating him, but he remains in an induced coma after, explained Huni according to the Sydney Morning Herald, “He was foaming at the mouth; blood was coming out of his eyes; he was gone”.
“My strength and conditioning trainer, he’s done his CPR, he just kept pumping and pumping,” Huni also said. “He’s still in an induced coma in the ICU at the moment. It’s sad to see someone so close to me in that way. I never thought I would see that in my life. He’s breathing. It’s up to him now to wake up. I’m praying for him.”
It was in 2022 when Huni outpointed Leutele, 31, over 10 rounds. He placed his trust in Fiu despite his being convincingly ahead on all three scorecards against Wardley until the 10th round, when he was dramatically stopped.
Huni had also accepted the fight with Wardley with five weeks’ notice and after having previously suffered injuries to his biceps and elbow. Wardley has since similarly dramatically stopped Joseph Parker, and therefore moved into contention to fight Oleksandr Usyk in 2026.
“After my fight with Fabio my stock went up,” Huni said at Thursday’s press conference. “After seeing that fight, and unfortunately Parker getting stopped, it’s gone up again. It’s my time now. I’ve just got to continue fighting, get back on to my winning spree again.
“I’ve got a good team now; a solid team. Everyone’s working together. I’m happy. My team’s happy. A happy fighter’s a dangerous fighter, they say.
“I’m grateful. Another big opportunity to fight on another Jai Opetaia card on the Gold Coast. It’s going to be a lot different to when I was walking out at Ipswich [in England against Wardley] – I had the whole world against me. It’s going to be good to be back here on the Gold Coast and fighting in front of my people again.
“I learned a lot from it. I think I shocked myself. I had no expectations going into that fight. I took that fight on short notice; I took it with an injury. That’s just the way it ended up, and now I’ve got to bounce back, hope for that opportunity again, and hopefully share the ring with Fabio again.
“There’s no doubt about it – I’d take it in a heartbeat. Taking that fight with the injury I had and short notice, there was a lot to think about, but looking back I’m grateful I took that opportunity and if it came around again I’d take it in a heartbeat.”
