Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
IBF Cruiserweight Champion Jai Opetaia has a lot of testing to do in his next defense against David Nyika in 13 days time on January 8 at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia.
The fans in love with the 29-year-old Opetaia (26-0, 20 KOs) jumped ship after seeing his timid performance in his rematch with Mairis Briedis on May 18 earlier this year.
Project for victory
Many of the fans realized that they had been wrong about Opetaia, believing that he was pure gold after watching him hang with the second tier fighters. When Opetaia came on with the real one, he looked yellow in the replay against Briedis. You could see the fear in his eyes as Briedis was chasing him, and it was very disappointing.
Opetaia looked scared as he began to take hard shots from Briedis. He resembled Dmitry Bivol in the way he ran around the ring, being chased by the 39-year-old.
It was not a good picture. For fans to forget that image, Opetaia must come to fight, stay in the pocket and trade power punches with the heavyweight Nyika (10-0, 9 KOs) on January 8th.
Nyika has a real chance of winning this fight if he follows Briedis’ plan and puts Opetaia under heavy pressure non-stop. Opetaia doesn’t like getting hit. It is not the same when his opponents face him.
Opetaia needs a strong sample
“For me, it’s another goal. It’s the same thing we all do. We get up and train. Yes, for sure. That’s what I’ve been chasing. I’m chasing unification fights,” said Jai Opetaia BoxNation when asked if he is interested in fighting WBA Cruiserweight Champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez in a unification.
“I have another obligation to take care of (David Nyika). This is a serious fight. David Nyika is from my neck of the woods. He’s had a great amateur pedigree. I’m looking forward to 12 tough rounds. It’s exciting for the cruiserweight division. Yes, we want to do this work and we want to pursue these unification belts.
“I’ve shared the ring with him (Nyika) many times. We’ve sparred a lot. He only lives an hour away from me. We’re locals. We work together a lot. So this was always going to happen,” Opetaia said of the fight a boy from the nearby territory to attract the interest of Australians and New Zealanders.
It’s important for Opetaia to stay on the front foot, attack and not retreat when under Nyika’s heavy fire. To become a global star, Jai must stand his ground this time and not back down when Niyka wants to participate. He seems to admire Bivol’s fighting style, and that’s a poisonous style if the goal is to entertain.
This fight doesn’t sit well with fans outside of Australia and New Zealand, who want to see Opetaia take on WBA champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez, Chris Billam-Smith, Leonardo Mosquea and Cheavon Clarke.
The shadow of Briedis
There isn’t much interest in seeing Opetaia fight guys like Nyika, Jack Massey, Ellis Zorro and Jordan Thompson. I can’t say it enough: Opetaia did NOT look good in his rematch against 39-year-old Mairis Briedis on May 18th earlier this year. He timidly fought Briedis, running around the ring after he began to take facial damage.
When fans saw Opetaia’s performance, they called it a hype job, and he’s done nothing to prove them wrong since. Opetaia doesn’t like getting hit and will do anything to avoid punishment when faced with someone willing to stand up to him, as Briedis did.
