By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing
IBF #4, WBO #10 cruiserweight Jai Opetaia (20-0, 16 KOs) stopped Benjamin Kelleher (13-2- 2, 4 KOs) in round six of a scheduled ten round bout when referee Steve Marshall crowned Opetaia at 1:50 after Kelleher in no condition to continue. The fight tookplace at the Music Hall Fortitude Valley Brisbane on Thursday night, televised on Foxtel Network nationally
In other action, 2019 amateur world super heavyweight bronze medalist Justis Huni (1-0, 1 KO) made a successful professional debut when he stopped Faiga Opelu (13-2-1, 10 KOs) in seven rounds for the Australian heavyweight crown. Referee Philip Holiday, the former IBF lightweight champion, crowned Huni after the corner of Opelu threw in the towel at 1:21.
Thought ok, some Australian mediocre heavyweight. But watched the fight and Huni really looks like he could be a danger to the likes of Ajagba, Joyce, Dubois type level heavyweights quite soon.
Not sure who Justis Huni is but his management obviously has a lot of confidence in him to move him so fast in just his pro debut. Very rare for a heavyweight. A 7th round KO in your pro debut is far out!
Boxing needs to move with the times and not worry about padding a fighters record until he is 20-0. Make exciting fights for the fans and change the mentality that when a boxer loses he is done. Ivan Baranchyk is an example – he’ll probably be labelled damaged goods, washed up. If it were the UFC they’d be saying that guy bangs and is fan friendly, when can we get him back in the ring?
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