Aussie boxer's furious manager is set to lodge formal complaint with the WBA following shock KO defeat by Fabio Wardley
Fabio Wardley produced a sensational right hand to send Australian boxer Justis Huni crashing to the canvas on Saturday night in front of 20,000 fans at Portman Road.
The 26-year-old Queenslander had been in control for much of the fight, and was ahead on the judges' scorecards, but appeared to over-stretch his right arm during the 10th round, allowing Wardley to snipe a huge right-hand hook across the temple of his opponent.
The blow sent him crashing to the ground and ended his unbeaten fight streak, with Wardley securing the win and a potential shot at the winner of Daniel Dubois ' fight with Oleksandr Usyk.
However, Fox Sports Australia are reporting Huni's team are furious at the result.
They claim English referee John Latham had not given the Aussie fighter a proper 10 count.
Mr Lathan had appeared to stoop down to Huni who lay with his back to the floor and began to issue the count. However, he then called the fight before he reached 10 seconds.
Huni's manager, Mick Francis, vented his frustrations after the bout and revealed he had even voiced his complaints to Eddie Hearnm, adding he'd be issuing a complaint to the WBA immediately.
He told the Matchroom promoter: 'You haven't heard the last of this.'
He added: 'He just waved it off.
'I'm lodging a protest with the WBA.
'I've already spoken to Eddie Hearn and Spencer (Brown) and they agreed.
'It's a f***ing world title, not some fight in the park.
'And they didn't give Justis Huni the correct opportunity.'
He noted that while Huni had been hit by a good shot in the 10th round, he believed he hadn't been given a fair chance to continue.
'Justis wasn't wobbly when he got to his feet.
'Yes, he got hit with a good shot.
'And if he'd had enough, fair enough.
'But Justis was putting on a boxing clinic.
'They were looking for any opportunity to give this fight to Wardley.'
Despite the loss, Huni had produced an excellent performance to keep Wardley quiet for most of the fight, which he had only accepted five weeks ago.
Scorecards had shown that the Australian was up 89-82 on two of the judges' scorecards, while the third had given him the fight 88-83 after 10 rounds.
However, Huni wasn't letting the brutal punch get to him after the fight.
The Aussie star, whose record now drops to 12-1 following his first defeat, managed to give fans a smile and shrugged off the loss, saying: 'That's my curse.
'I even said before this fight that it only takes one split second to switch off,' Huni said.
'And it happened tonight.
'Credit to Fabio and his team, I'm grateful for the opportunity.
'He's a real champion.
'Get behind him because he's doing good things.'
The humble Australian added: 'He's just an awesome fighter man.
'He never gave up and he got the win tonight. Credit to Fabio.'
Wardley also admitted he had struggled across some of the early rounds.
'Look, Justis Huni is a great operator,' he said
'But no matter what, I'm going to be aggravated with myself because we'd been through everything over and over again – knew the game down to a 't' – and I should've gone better in some of those rounds.
'But that's how it goes.
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