Tara Murray
Trying to win a world title is hard enough, let alone having to do it with a broken leg.
That was the case for Prince Bunjaku in his recent IKBF Championship cruiserweight world title fight against Atsushi Mori.
Bunjaku entered the fight full of confidence with an undefeated record, but he thought his chances of winning the title were over early in the fight.
“I broke my leg in the first round,” he said. “I still had four more rounds to go with a broken leg, that was fun.
“I knew I had done something bad. I was struggling to stand up to be honest. When it happened, I didn’t know how I was going to get through the next round, let alone the rest of the fight.”
Lucky for Bunjaku no one else, including his opponent, had realised the damage that he had done.
He wasn’t going to let anyone know and he changed his approach to try and claim the win and the title.
“I outboxed him,” he said. “I kept making it so he couldn’t kick my leg cause my left leg kept collapsing.
“I just tried to creep forward slowly and just try to use my hands.”
The world title is Bunjaku’s third and he has a 17-0 record.
He won the same weight category in 2019. Earlier this year, he won the heavyweight title against someone who was 30 kilograms heavier.
Bunjaku said he doesn’t think anyone else has ever done that, winning two different division titles in the same year.
It was one of three fights on the night between Australian and Japanese opponents.
Melbourne’s Nasar Kassab defeated Japan’s Aqil Bukhari, while Campbellfield’s Mini Nachar defeated Kimura to claim the IKBF championship heavyweight world title.
Yarraville promoter Lim Jeka organised the three fights.
Bunjaku, who is the owner of AKB Altona Kickboxing, said he was back walking with the help of a cane.
He doesn’t have much time to rest his leg as he supports his two sons as they head to Japan to try and win their own world titles.
Naser and Dilan Bunjaku will compete at the Kyokushin World Championships in Japan.
“They are only 10 and 14,” he said.”They’re going to have a crack and they’ve got lots of fights already.
“They keep building. They’ve never had big events and titles like this for juniors. It’s the first one for the whole world.
“They had to qualify for it this year. They had to beat people from across Australia.”
Bunjaku said he didn’t think that there had been three members of the same family win world titles in the space of two weeks before.
“It doesn’t matter if they win or lose, as long as they fight their best,” he said.
