Ahead of his boxing return, Australian heavyweight champion Justis Huni will test out his elbow next week with the injury keeping him from serious sparring.
Rising heavyweight Justis Huni hasn't been able to properly spar since December but is confident his elbow injury won't hamper his return to the ring.
The 22-year-old confirmed on Friday that he will have his first fight in almost a year when he takes on tough Kiwi Kiki Lutele on the undercard of Jai Opetaia's world title fight against Mairis Briedis on the Gold Coast on May 11.
The Australian heavyweight champion's career has stalled in the past 12 months, starting with hand surgery after beating former NRL star Paul Gallen, which ruled him out of the Tokyo Olympics.
After recovering from that, Huni contracted COVID-19 twice - once in the US and then on his return home - and suffered the elbow injury while training in Los Angeles.
He was sparring in December under the watch of Justin Fortune, the former trainer of the legendary Manny Pacquiao when he hyper-extended his elbow.
"It was my second sparring session and it got caught," Huni told AAP.
"Each time after that I tried to spar I kept injuring it - there was a nerve pushing against my funny bone."
Surgery was considered before it was decided rehabilitation was the best way to recover and rebuild the strength in the joint.
Huni said he had worked hard to overcome the issue and would test it out in the ring next week, confident it would be right to take on Lutele.
"I'm positive it will be alright - I will spar next week but I'm expecting it to hold up good and I will be able to get the ball rolling again and get a few fights lined up."
Before being hit hard by COVID-19, which rocked him for about two weeks, and the elbow injury Huni said he had taken a lot out of the LA training experience.
"We worked on a lot of mental stuff, repetitive stuff and trained hard for two weeks," the Queenslander said.
Fortune said in December he'd been impressed by what he'd seen from the young Australian, who has a 5-0 record.
