Boxing: Dean Lonergan says new charge Justis Huni is better prospect than Joseph Parker

Justis Huni punches Paul Gallen during their Australian heavyweight title fight. Photo / Getty

Stranded boxing promoter Dean Lonergan says his new fighter – 22-year-old Australian heavyweight Justis Huni – is better than Joseph Parker and Jeff Horn at the same stages of their career.

"I don't say that lightly," he says. "Both those guys won world titles and in the case of Horn, he beat one of the all-time greats in Manny Pacquiao."

Lonergan has left his base in Australia to wrap up the proposed bout between Junior Fa and Huni – and says he is thinking about holding the bout in New Zealand if it comes off.

He is living in Auckland at present, staying with his mum and his sister as he cannot get back to Australia: "It means two weeks quarantine but, even aside from that, MIQ is full, same as New Zealand. But it's been great staying with my mum – she's 75 and healthy and I make her breakfast and a cup of tea most mornings and tell her how much I am enjoying it here."

"I think the fight will come off and I'm also considering holding it here – there have been precious few events in New Zealand recently. The Warriors are missing, the V8s haven't come here and there's been only a little bit of the All Blacks who are now heading off overseas.

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"So, by February-March when we are thinking of staging this, the appetite for an event could be perfect."

Huni is an interesting fighter – he owns a stellar amateur record is straddling both the amateur and professional strata. He was invalided out of the Tokyo Olympics after an injury gained dispatching tough rugby league fighter Paul Gallen recently; he is intent on fighting at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham next year and then the Olympics in Paris in 2024.

Even accounting for promoter hyperbole, Lonergan's assessment of Huni is interesting: "He's got enormous potential, power and skill and the Commonwealth Games is an ideal place to showcase him for the UK market and all the big fighters they have over there.

"It'd be ideal for him to come out of the Commonwealth Games and go straight into a big heavyweight pro fight over there." Names like Derek Chisora, Daniel Du Bois and Joe Joyce have been mentioned.

The problem in making a match for Huni is the risk factor. Lonergan says that is clearly troubling Fa's connections in agreeing to the bout as, if Fa wins, the boxing world will shrug at the defeat of a young fighter with only five pro fights, even if they are all wins, four by knockout.

However, if Huni wins - "I back him to knock Junior Fa out," says Lonergan - it will cost Fa a lot in credibility, especially after his loss to Parker in February – the only loss in his 19-fight record but which dropped him out the top 15 world rankings with the WBO.