Australian heavyweight star Justis Huni has sensationally been urged to not only knock out Kiki Leutele this Friday night, but also the New Zealander’s “whinging” trainer Isaac Peach.
Undefeated in all six fights as a professional, Huni appeared typically relaxed – and humble – during a Wednesday press conference for what has largely been a relaxed build up for the 23-year-old.
Yet the same could not be said for promoter Dean Lonergan, who took a massive swing at Auckland trainer Peach – who he accused of complaining right throughout the build up to this Trans Tasman showdown.
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Speaking with Fox Sports Australia last month, Peach labelled Huni an unproven “hype job” who had effectively prevented his fighter – due to ongoing contract delays — from “being able to feed his family properly”.
Weeks later, the trainer would also shrug off reports Huni had busted the ribs of two sparring partners in America, labelling the claims “bulls…”.
All of which has apparently angered Lonergan, who prior to the press conference starting said: “I gotta be honest, I hope Justis puts his boy to sleep very, very early
“And what would be perfect is if Peach gets all fired up, jumps into the ring and Justis puts him to sleep too … I’m over it.”
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Later during official proceedings, the promoter responsible for Australian stars like Huni and Jai Opetaia continued: “I’ve had nothing but whinging and whining coming from Team Peach.
“And I have a lot of time for Kiki, he’s a good man. I have a lot of time for Isaac.
“But the amount of whinging that has come out … ‘oh, we beat Demsey McKean but the Australian judges are corrupt, oh we can’t come over for a promotion because it’s going to disrupt our training, oh you keep putting us off and you’re treating us like shit, oh Justis gets all the attention’ …
“Justis gets all the attention because he can fight.
“Justis gets all the attention because he was once upon a time a world amateur champion. He did something incredible in his professional debut too, becoming the first man in 110 years to come out of the amateur ranks and win the Australian title.
“That had never been done before.
“Justis Huni is absolutely special.
“So while I think Kiki Leutele will provide an excellent fight on Friday night — will come to throw punches — for God’s sake I hope the whinging stops afterwards.”
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Asked for a reply on stage, Peach shrugged: “I thought you were better than that Dean.
“The truth is, Dean has been begging me to whinge because nobody cared about the fight.
“The truth is he’s gone ‘can you say something, can you do this’ … but now we aren’t saying anything else.
“We aren’t whingers, man.
“We’re just hear to fight.”
Which is when Lonergan interrupted: “Wait until he gets behind closed doors, it changes. He’s an angry man”.
“Dean is trying really hard,” Peach then continued.
“He tries to put words into everybody’s mouths, but we’re here to fight.
“We’re big underdogs and we’re looking to take our opportunity”.
Asked after the press conference finished about Lonergan’s pitch for Huni to knock him cold, Peach – himself a former New Zealand super middleweight champion – shrugged off the threat.
“Obviously we’ve got under Dean’s skin from day one,” he told Fox Sports Australia.
“He’s been desperate for us to sell this fight but I can assure you I’ll never be a puppet in his games again.”
Elsewhere, Huni shrugged off the fireworks surrounding both the day, and build up, including suggestions he doesn’t have enough punching power to win a world title.
“That’s just noise which I tend to block out,” he said. “Don’t pay much attention to it.
“At the end of the day I’m still getting the wins.
“It’s that’s what is going to progress me to my goals.”
Asked about Leutele putting pressure on him in this fight, the young Aussie continued: “I’ve prepared for whatever game plan they want to bring.
“And if he wants to go toe to toe, I’ll be there.
“I’m very confident in my ability, in my power and my boxing ability to get this win.”
