Kiki Leutele’s trainer Isaac Peach has labelled accounts of Justis Huni hurting sparring partners in the US as “bullshit.”
Huni takes on New Zealander Leutele (8-1-2), for the WBO Oriental, IBF Pan Pacific and WBC OPBF titles, at Brisbane’s Nissan Arena on Friday November 4, in a bout that’s been a long time coming for the Kiwi.
Huni told Wide World of Sports of his recent exploits in the United States, spending more than a month in West Hollywood training alongside Australian trainer Justin Fortune, who has worked with the likes of Manny Pacquiao, Mike Tyson and James Toney in the past.
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The 6-0 heavyweight impressed in sparring with the WBC’s No.3 ranked heavyweight Frank Sanchez, with sources telling WWOS that Huni left other sparring partners with cracked ribs.
“Who gives a shit?” Peach told Wide World of Sports. “Jerome Pampellone (fighter in Peach stable) went to Australia to spar Jai Opetaia and broke his rib, but (Huni promoter) Dean (Lonergan) doesn’t want to talk about that does he? Everything they say is full of shit.
“Frank Sanchez is just a boxer. He’s not a puncher. Who’s Frank Sanchez? Who cares? We couldn’t give a f—.
“They think their shit don’t stink, all they talk about is the crap they’re doing in America.
“Mate we’ve gone to America with my other boys, it’s all shit. We’ve done the hard old fashioned training and we’re going to knock Justis out.”
Huni was originally scheduled to face Leutele as the co-main event on Jai Opetaia’s IBF cruiserweight title fight against Mairis Briedis, but it was derailed by COVID and injuries.
However, despite the contract being signed, Huni fought Joe Goodall, leaving Leutele in a state of uncertainty.
Leutele has only fought once this year – a second round TKO win over Lui Te’o – but Peach believes the lack of respect shown by the Huni team has given him the extra motivation during camp.
“He’s signed the contract but there’s been no fight. It’s been really difficult. He’s been living at my house a lot. He lives in Napier and it’s about an hour’s flight to the gym. He stays with me Tuesday – Saturday and then flies back to see his kids.
“We’ve gotten some help regarding flights with a sponsor but not fully. It’s been tough on his whole family with his wife trying to work but she’d just had a new baby, so he’s pretty bloody driven to win the fight, there’s a lot of reasons behind it.”
Peach said the way his fighter has been treated, will ultimately come back to bite Huni.
“I’ve been in Justis’ camp with another one of my fighters. I know what Justis is about, and one thing Justis is, is a bit brittle, he’s injury prone so we’re going to come out there with our best and put a hit on him,” Peach said.
“There’s a lot of hype surrounding Justis, a lot of stories and that’s fine but we’re the perfect people to prove them wrong.
“They ignored Kiki the whole year, they were overlooking us. All they can talk about is their American sparring partners. Who gives a shit about sparring? No one scores sparring.
“We’re ready for war. When Kiki knocks him out it will be karma.”
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