Olympic gold medal hope Justis Huni will dive straight into his professional career next month when he fights for an Australian heavyweight title on debut.
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The Queenslander will make the most of rule changes in 2016 that allowed Olympic-bound boxers to fight professionally when he takes on Faiga 'Django' Opelu on October 22 at Brisbane's Fortitude Music Hall.
Huni hopes the 10-round showpiece is one of several before next year's rescheduled Games, where he has legitimate hopes of becoming the country's first boxing gold medallist.
The 21-year-old Huni has gone 18-3 in an amateur career that included world super heavyweight championship bronze in Russia last year.
With the Olympics pushed back a year, he felt turning professional was his best course for keeping busy in the meantime.
"This is what I've always wanted, to come into the pros with a bang," he said.
"I was jumping out of my socks (when the fight was confirmed) ... it's always been a dream to me but I feel like everything's starting to come true and hopefully I can make it to the top one day."
The card will also feature world-ranked cruiserweight Jai Opetaia in a rematch with Ben Kelleher, whom he beat in 2017.
The southpaw is a perfect 19-0 and is targeting a world title shot in 2021.
"It's been frustrating; we were at that sort of time we want to move forward closer to that world title," he said of COVID-19 spoiling any chance of an international bout this year.
"But this fight does make a bit of sense; he hurt his hand the last fight and I wasn't happy with the way I won the fight.
"There was a bit of talking after the fight, I'm keen to get in there and prove them all wrong ... I just want to win convincingly."
Australian Associated Press