Paul Gallen may have claimed an impressive win over former heavyweight champion Lucas Browne, but Justis Huni’s camp warns the former NRL star will barely last five rounds.
Gallen is undefeated after 12 professional fights but faces the greatest challenge of his career against the rising Huni, who has been widely backed as the overwhelming favourite to win the bout. Gallen vs Huni fight
The pair are set to take to the ring on June 16 at the ICC Exhibition Centre in Sydney.
After watching Justis Huni dismantle Christian Tsoye to retain his Australian heavyweight title, Paul Gallen declared he is more confident he can defeat the Olympic-medal hopeful next month.
Huni’s father and trainer, Rocky, instructed the Australian champion to back off when it appeared he could have stopped Tsoye to give his son ‘more time under the lights’.
Gallen, who is now confirmed to fight Huni on June 16, sat ringside as a member of the commentary team for the media-only event in Sydney.
The 39-year-old NRL legend conceded the Queenslander was ‘impressive’ but claimed he spotted weaknesses in the 22-year-old’s game.
“Yeah without a doubt, I saw things tonight that I can exploit,” Gallen said at a joint press conference with Huni.
“The pace that I’m going to go at is a whole lot faster than what Chris went tonight and once I get on the inside I’m going to be able to keep punching.
“Justis didn’t like that at times on the inside tonight, he wanted to tie it up and then the referee broke it up and the fight went back to the range which is good for Justis.
“I’ve got to keep going forward, keep that pressure on and get inside and fight him.
“It’s a fight, Christian didn’t make it dirty enough tonight.”
Gallen added: “He was good, he was impressive. Range is where he wanted to fight tonight and that’s where he wants to fight me, keep me on the outside.
“But I saw things from Christian Tsoye tonight that I can exploit, that I can do hopefully better than what Christian did tonight.
“I’ve got to go forward on him, it’s pretty obvious and I have the fitness and the ability to continue going forward and continue that pressure.
“When they got broken up tonight, Tsoye probably stood a little bit still, he didn’t have that much head move and Justis with a lightening-fast jab just picked him off for a lot of the night.”
Huni declared his outing ‘a very good performance’ and shrugged off Gallen’s newfound confidence.
“They can say what they want to say but it’s the actions, actions speak louder than words,” Huni said.
“… Everyone’s style is different and if you know boxing styles make fights.
“But the way I look at it, it’s going to be pretty similar to what went on tonight.
“He said he was going to bring a little bit more pressure but that just means he’s going to walk into more punches.”
“I’ve prepared my whole life for this. I feel like I work better under pressure, so we’ll just have to wait and see and see if game plan goes to plan.”
