Justis Huni suffers ankle injury, withdraws from Prograis-Zorrilla undercard

Justis Huni will have to wait to make his U.S. debut. is forced to postpone his U.S. debut.

The unbeaten Australian heavyweight rolled his ankle during a weekend sparring session resulting in two torn ligaments. As a result, his scheduled 10-round affairversus former title challenger Andrew Tabit is off. Their bout was set to take place on the June 17 DAZN show at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. The bout would have marked Huni’s first fight under the Matchroom Boxing banner.

“I’m just devastated that this has happened so close to the fight,” Huni told Australia-based publication Courier-Mail, which was the first to break the news. “I was packed and ready to go, I was a day away from flying out and now this has happened.

“I’m absolutely gutted.”

Brisbane’s Huni (7-0, 5KOs) revealed that the injury occurred Saturday while sparring with countryman and past opponent Joseph Goodall (9-1-1, 8KOs). Huni outpointed Goodall over ten rounds last June 15 at Nissan Arena in Nathan, Australia. The same venue hosted his most recent start, a ten-round decision victory over Kiki Toa Luetele last November 4.

The rest of the June 17 show will move forward as scheduled. In the main event, WBC junior welterweight titlist Regis Prograis (28-1, 24 KOs) defends the first defense of his second reign in his childhood hometown versus Puerto Rico’s Danielito Zorrilla (17-1, 13 KOs).

The 34-year-old Prograis will fight in Louisiana for the first time since a sixth-round knockout of Kiryl Relikh to win the WBA junior welterweight title in their April 2019 World Boxing Super Series semifinal at Cajun Dome in Lafayette. He subsequently lost the belt to Scotland’s Josh Taylor in the WBSS final later that October and has since won four straight including an eleventh-round knockout of Jose Zepeda last November 26 to claim the vacant WBC title.