Dean Lonergan's plan to turn Australian boxing star Justis Huni into a 'rockstar'

Huni's promoter Dean Lonergan hopes Paul Gallen will not enact a rematch clause with the unbeaten Australian champion after their 10-round battle in Sydney this past Wednesday.

Gallen absorbed an incredible amount of punishment and perhaps proved too tough for his own good before being stopped in the final round against the 5-0 Huni.

Now Lonergan is drafting a plan that would see Huni, who is soon bound for the Tokyo Olympics, fight eight times in as many cities over the next 18 months to close in on a mandatory world title shot.

A showdown with New Zealand's Junior Fa [19-1] as the main event on a rugby league all stars card in Townsville this October looms as the next step should Gallen decide against a rematch.

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Lonergan says NRL stars Jason Taumalolo, Addin Fonua-Blake, Brandon Smith and Junior Paulo have all signed contracts to compete on the night, which will be wedged between the grand final and the World Cup.

"Junior Fa is six foot seven and one hell of a fight. What's interesting about it is, you've got two lovely guys who can fight, but they're not necessarily two of the best at selling the fight," Lonergan said.

"Our perfect world is, we have five rugby league undercard fights, and we put Junior Fa versus Justis Huni on top of that. You get a big rugby league audience coming to to it, as well as a boxing audience, and we get the best of both worlds.

"That would probably get [Huni] a ranking in the top 12 of the world of heavyweights. Junior is a recognised entity, and the sanctioning bodies are well aware of Justis and what he can do. It would make a statement. We would go into that fight and like to see a knockout."

Fa is coming off a unanimous decision defeat at the hands of former WBO world heavyweight champion Joseph Parker.

A win over Fa could propel Huni up the world rankings and turn him into "a rockstar" across Australia.

"In my perfect world, we start in Townsville, we then go down to Brisbane and the Gold Coast. We go to Newcastle, we go to Sydney, we go to Canberra, we go to Melbourne and we go to Bendigo," Lonergan said.

"Then we start the whole thing over again, and by that stage he is just going to be a massive rockstar wherever he goes.

"Being busy is how you get better as a fighter. The busier you are, the more sanctioning fees you pay, the quicker you move up into the areas we need to be, to be in a mandatory position.

"At the end of next year, if we can do that schedule and I'm pretty sure we can, he will be in the top two, three or four in the world and close to a mandatory shot. The timing would be impeccable."

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