Jarrell Miller was forced to pull out of his clash with Fabio Wardley after sustaining a shoulder injury in training, but his replacement may be even better.
Jarrell Miller has just three wins in the last seven years, two of which came against journeyman opponents and one against a past-his-best Lucas Browne.
Despite this, his recent effort against Daniel Dubois and his draw with a broken-handed Andy Ruiz Jr. put him in the top spot to face British boxer Fabio Wardley, who is coming off a one-round demolition of Olympian Frazer Clarke.
However, after Miller was forced to withdraw, Wardley was given a new opponent. Though he is not as experienced as Miller, he has no losses and is an impressive prospect who beat of Dubois’ toughest foes.
Justis Huni beat the cruiserweight who dropped Daniel Dubois three times in round one
Miller’s replacement, Justis Huni, is just 12-0, but has one win on his record that warrants praise.
In 2024, 8-0 Huni faced 30-2 Kevin Lerena, a former IBO cruiserweight champion.
Lerena had fought Dubois, who landed a controversially on Oleksandr Usyk, three fights earlier in a fight that turned into a horror show for the Brit early on when Lerena dropped Dubois three times in round one.
The Brit claimed this was due to an injury in his knee rather than anything Lerena was throwing, though the fact remains Dubois, whose past opponent Dorian Darch is a bare-knuckle fighter, went down more in this fight than any other.
Dubois did rally to a victory over Lerena in the third round, something Huni was not able to do, though in Huni’s fight with Lerena the Aussie was not knocked down once, and seemed to be cruising to a victory before a few difficult rounds.
Huni beat Lerena by unanimous decision and has since begun a knockout streak, with his last three opponents failing to make it past the second round.
Wardley, who had just four white-collar fights before turning pro, may have his work cut out for him against the skilled Australian.
Justis Huni lost to one of the greatest amateur boxers currently fighting
Before turning pro, Huni developed a solid amateur background, with a reported record of 35-2.
His only reported losses have come to Denis Kovacs, who beat Huni in 2016, and Bakhodir Jalolov, who beat Huni in the 2020 Olympic Qualifying Tournament finals.
This was Huni’s final fight as an amateur before deciding to go pro, and Jalolov is widely considered to be a standout talent in the amateur division, having won Olympic gold twice, and built up a record of 109-15. He has not lost since 2018.