Nyika drowned in the power strokes of a sea of ​​Opetaia

IBF Cruiserweight Champion Jai Opetaia (27-0, 21 KOs) retained his title with a fourth-round, two-knockout win over David Nyika (10-1, 9 KOs) on Wednesday night at Gold Coast Convention Center, Broadbeach, in Queensland, Australia.

Down Goes the World

The fight was fought slowly for the first three rounds, with the 6’6″ Nyika neutralizing Opetaia’s attack by fighting him with his massive size. In the fourth, Opetaia had room to land his power punches and dropped Nyika twice for the knockout. The second fall left Nyika face down on the ground, badly injured.

“I was waiting for him to come out and box. The first round was pretty intense. I didn’t expect him to come out so aggressively, and after the first round, I thought, ‘Here we are. He’s going to start boxing. He just kept going, and that is what happens”, said Jai Opetaia al mediatalking about his win over David Nyika tonight in Australia.

Nyika had no choice but to stay inside, try to damage Opetaia and stifle his power with the confrontation. When Opetaia had space to launch his long power shots from the outside, he dominated Nyika, who had neither the attack nor the defense to deal with it. Nyika therefore did the right thing by keeping the action close, giving Opetaia no room to gain leverage with his power shots.

Where Nyika got into trouble in the fourth round was when he gave Opetaia room to throw an uppercut, which hurt him, and led to several more power shots that put him on the canvas for the first loss . Moments later, Opetaia finished off Nyika with a flurry of punches, ending with a brutal left hand to the head that sent the opponent face down to the canvas. Nyika was badly hurt by the fall and lay down for a long time.

“I respect David. I hope he’s OK. He’s a great fighter. I don’t think people give him the credit he deserves for the way we fought. We literally just threw a punch,” Opetaia said. “I don’t think he’s going to get as much credit as he deserves.

“I want Lefty!”

“The fight is done and dusted. I’m looking forward to what’s next. Now I pursue unification struggles. I’m not worried about the last fight,” said Jai.

Opetaia wants a unification match against WBA and WBO Cruiserweight Champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez. Whether this fight can happen will depend on the money. Zurdo and his Golden Boy promoters will want it to be worth it financially before agreeing to a risky match against Opetaia.

I will say this: Opetaia threw a lot of punches on the inside during the fight, many of which hit Nyika in the back of the head. The ref should have said something to Jai during the fight to get him to stop with those rabbit shots because it looked like they were going to take a lot out of the fight on Nyika. Boxing is weird. Referees are great at stopping low blows, but do very little to warn and penalize the far more dangerous rabbit punches.