WBO number 15 ranked heavyweight contender Justis ‘JPH’ Huni 8-0 (4) claimed the biggest scalp of his short career when he got over former cruiserweight world title challenger Andrew Tabiti 20-2 (16) at Poliforum Benito Juarez in Cancun, Mexico on Saturday night.
The 24-year-old Australian was making his North American debut in the main support bout to the WBC super featherweight title defence of O’Shaquie ‘Ice Water’ Foster 21-2 (12) making the first defence of his world title against Eduardo ‘Rocky’ Hernandez 34-2 (21) live on DAZN.
Huni was originally scheduled to face American, Tabiti, 34, on the undercard of the Regis Prograis vs Danielito Zorrilla fight in New Orleans, Louisiana on June 17 before a torn ligament suffered late in his training camp forced the fight to be postponed.
Despite the injury and a year long layoff, Huni looked fresh and sharp from the opening bell. He stalked Tabiti, using subtle movement, quick hands and clever shot selection to land accurate blows to the body and head.
Tabiti was crafty, setting traps for Huni and having pockets of success throughout the bout, particularly with the right hand, but he could do little to dissuade the antipodean from letting his hands go.
The pair combined to throw a total of 838 punches according to CompuBox, almost double the 454 punches thrown by Tyson Fury and Francis Ngannou in their 10-round heavyweight bout in Saudi Arabia earlier in the day.
Both Huni and Tabiti targeted the body with the former landing 66 body punches and the latter connecting with 52. Huni threw and landed more power punches than Tabiti, who rolled with a lot of Huni’s punches, but could not match his output.
At the end of the fight all three judges saw Huni the winner by scores of 100-90 and 98-92 twice.
Huni admitted that boxing someone who could match him in the speed department was rare and that it took some adjustment.
“His speed and movement,” Huni said in the post-fight interview. “I’d go to throw a combination and he wasn’t there.”
Huni wants to make the most of his momentum and hopes for another hit-out before the end of 2023.
He said: “I’d be good to go again in December. I’m ready to go… and stay active.”
Huni burst onto the pro scene three years ago after a successful amateur career to claim the Australian heavyweight title on debut when he knocked out reigning champion Faiga Opelu in seven rounds.
Although he is already world rated, Huni knows it will take some time build his name internationally and establish himself as a genuine world championship contender.
“I’m just seven fights in so I need to work my way up, get more recognised and everything will fall into place,” Huni said to News Corp in the lead-up to the bout. “If I keep performing, I should be within the top 10 in the next couple of years.
“If I keep heading on the up and up, who knows what can happen. I just need to keep working to earn the right to be in that position.”
