Teremoana Jnr excels back home

GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA – Teremoana Jnr impressed on the occasion of his first fight back in Australia since making his mark at the Olympic Games when he required only 57 seconds to stop the little-known Osasu Otobo.

At the Gold Coast Convention Centre, on the undercard of the IBF cruiserweight title fight between Jai Opetaia and David Nyika, he delivered the homecoming performance expected of him and for which Germany’s Otobo was chosen when he eased to the quickest of victories.

The 26-year-old was a 4-0 professional when he competed in the super-heavyweight competition at Paris 2024, where he lost a competitive fight in the quarter finals with the eventual champion Bakhodir Jalolov, of Uzbekistan.

He had since agreed co-promotional terms with Matchroom – he already worked with Tasman Fighters – and fought and won in Monte Carlo, Monaco in December, against Volodymyr Katsuk of Ukraine, shortly after which the date with Otobo was confirmed.

Teremoana Jnr had already caught the eye when landing successive lefts to the body – his advantage in size, strength and speed was telling from the opening bell – when they traded, a left hand dropped Otobo, and the German, 23, refused to attempt to meet the referee’s count.

“We’re very happy to get this one,” Teremoana said. “Fifty-seven seconds – I thought it would go a little bit longer but he wanted to fight. I’m glad he wanted to engage and [that] I got the job done.

“I can’t hear anything when I’m in the ring. I just trust in everything I do in training and trust my coaches and everything I do.

“I just want to thank everybody for coming out. It’s so great to be back here fighting in Australia. You’re such a great crowd.

“I just want to thank Mick [Francis] of Tasman Fighters for putting on such a great event, and also Matchroom and Goldstar.”

“They say don’t get excited too early,” said Eddie Hearn. “It’s time to get excited now. Australian boxing is on fire right now. This is the future. Australia can have a world heavyweight champion.

“This is a dangerous, dangerous man. That’s now six fights, six knockouts. You could be looking at Australia’s world heavyweight champion.”

At junior welterweight, Ireland’s Shauna Browne had by then won her fifth professional contest when she earned a split-decision victory over Taylah Gentzen.