He already features heavily in Australian boxing’s history books, now Justis Huni could find himself the subject of medical journals after appearing to contract Covid-19 a second time, just days after overcoming his first infection.
The Australian Heavyweight Champion fell worryingly ill with the virus in the US during his Christmas training camp before finally returning home last Friday after fully recovering and receiving a negative PCR test.
However after waking up from a post workout nap with body aches at home in Brisbane on Saturday he again tested positive.
The latest positive result came several weeks after Huni’s original test in Los Angeles though thankfully this infection has brought far milder symptoms, prompting speculation Huni contracted the Delta variant in the US and Omicron during his trip home.
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“I can’t believe my luck to be honest! It’s crazy that I’m positive again but the good thing is that I feel fine this time around – aside from a few aches in my body – so I’ll be back in the gym tomorrow once my isolation period is over,” says Huni.
“In the US, the first time around, I was really, really sick – I couldn’t even move – just rolling over in bed was painful and really difficult and it was worst on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Honestly I would have probably gone to the hospital if I could get out of bed but I just waited it out and eventually got better. Then in the last week over there I got back to training and just sweated it out.”
Despite the Covid-19 drama the heavyweight has labelled his American camp a major success after he had technique breakthroughs with LA-based Australian trainer Justin Fortune.
“It’s amazing what we got done in a just few weeks and a handful of sparring sessions. Some stuff really clicked over there working with Justin and the main thing was just the way I was using my power,” says Huni.
“People always compliment me on my speed after sparring but with these little adjustments I was making with Justin they all just wanted to talk about my power – even my jabs were doing damage!”
The 22 year old plans to return to the US for a one month training camp after his next fight with official announcements regarding Huni’s new 2022 schedule to be made in coming days.
“My hands really feel good after the issues I had last year and that’s all fully recovered and now hopefully all this virus stuff is behind me so I’m just looking forward to getting back to training and getting my first full camp in since the (Paul) Gallen camp, then having a really big 2022.”
