Opetaia vs. the World: Shooting or Freezing?

Jai Opetaia looked and sounded angry during his face-off with challenger David Nyika on Saturday to discuss their January 8 fight. Right from the start, Opetaia looked as if she had gotten out of the wrong side of the bed in the morning.

His grumpy mood worsened when Nyika didn’t flinch, show fear, and act in the servile way he seemed to expect of him.

Opetaia’s anger exposed

Opetaia wanted him to cave in and act submissive, and he wouldn’t. Jai wanted to be in control and dominate Nyika during their meeting.

It was a sign of how insecure Opetaia is. It’s clear that he’s used to intimidating his opponents, getting them into submission so he can dominate them when they get in the ring.

IBF cruiserweight champion Opetaia (26-0, 20 KOs) was concerned when told Nyika (10-0, 9 KOs) wanted to have a “fight” with him on Wednesday night.

Opetaia, 29, said he wants a 12-round “war” with the 6’6″ Nyika and believes he will knock him out. The two fighters will meet at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, Broadbeach, Australia. The event will be televised live on DAZN.

“Sparring is sparring. I’m ready for a fight on April 10. Don’t worry about sparring. It’s a whole different ball game,” said Jai Opetaia DAZN Boxing to David Nyika.

“I feel like I’ve done everything I had to do. I feel like I know Jai well enough. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. I’ve had my eye on Jai for a long time,” said Nyika.

“I know I can knock him out. I know I can hurt him,” Opetaia said. “These little gloves are a dangerous game. You want to have a shootout. Let’s have a shootout. I know it won’t be a shootout. He goes boxing. He doesn’t want to be hit. It will be a chess match.

“So, let’s go, let’s play. 12 rounds of war. I’m ready for it. You’re saying you’re ready for me. I am ready for anyone. I don’t have my goals set on anyone. I just train. I focus on myself; that’s all There is no one who imagines that I want to beat him or beat him,” said Opetaia.

Will Obadiah freeze again?

Jai talks a lot, but took no part in the war in his rematch against Mairis Briedis on May 18. Opetaia looked like someone with a bad case of combat stress. He fell apart when he came under constant bombardment from the Latvian fighter and froze in the final six rounds.

Briedis dominated the second half of the fight, and did enough to earn a draw. The judges gave it to Opetaia, but it should have been a draw. That is why it is strange that Opetaia talks about wanting to make a “war” with Nyika; not good under these conditions. Where Opetaia is good is when his opponents don’t throw, and he does all the attacking. When it’s just him pulling, it’s fine.

“He beats me every day. Hurt, sacrifice every day, I’m ready for that”, said Opetaia.

“Looks like you haven’t done your homework,” Nyika said when asked what goes through his mind when he hears Opetaia talk about him, knowing he’s going to knock him out. “It doesn’t seem like perfect practice makes perfect.

“I have practiced, I have researched and I have collected my information. This is not the type of sport you can enter with a game plan. I have a game plan from A to Z,” said Nyika.

As Nyika was saying all these things, Opetaia could be seen having a fit of rage, very upset that he had someone who didn’t bow down to him and scrape the floor like a servant like the many second tier fighters he had built his record on. with