Chris Billiam-Smith says IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia is not the next Oleksandr Usyk like some fans had been saying. He says he never brought into the hype about the Aussie Opetaia (25-0, 19 KOs) and felt that he was “humanized” in his last fight against 39-year-old Mairis Briedis.
It’s unclear who has been saying that Opetaia is the next Usyk, as Australia’s opposition was extremely poor until he fought an aging Briedis. The opposition that Opetaia had been fighting were lower-level guys like Elias Zorro, Mark Flanagan, and Jordan Thompson.
Usyk On Another Level
Casual fans may have naively labeled Opetaia as the next Usyk, but fans who know the sport saw him as a product of soft matchmaking. He’d been fighting lackluster opposition his nine-year career. Usyk is the gold standard for what a cruiserweight should be, and Opetaia falls far short of that mark. He’s more the copper variety.
There’s no comparison between Oleksandr Usyk’s talent when he fought at cruiserweight and Opertaia’s. Usyk could do it all, showing incredible skills and beating quality opposition. In contrast, Opetaia has only fought one good opponent during his entire career, and that was an older version of Briedis.
The first fight between them made Opetaia look better than he was because Briedis was coming off a long layoff. In the second fight last May, Briedis exposed Opetaia, putting him under nonstop pressure, showing that he doesn’t deal well with absorbing punishment.
Opetaia looked scared, dealing with pressure, getting his beak hurt, and facing withering fire from Briedis. The fight showed that Opetaia is not cut out for combat warfare and prefers to stay on the outside, throwing potshots.
In their rematch in Riyadh, Opetaia looked like a bigger version of Shakur Stevenson against Briedis, and it was a real eye-opener.
Opetaia is defending his IBF cruiserweight title against recently beaten Jack Massey (22-2, 12 KOs) on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol on October 12th at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
This is another example of Opetaia fighting a lesser fighter instead of one of the talented cruiserweight. It’s surprising that His Excellency Turki Alalshikh didn’t insist on Opetaia fighting someone talented for him to be at the October 12th event.
“He’s super talented, Opetaia. He does a lot of things really well. He’s got quick hands, good feet, good shot selection, and can punch,” said Chris Billiam-Smith to Secondsout about IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia.
“I think people that are saying he’s like the next Usyk, which I don’t agree with. I think Usyk is a much, much better fighter than Opetaia,” Billiam-Smith said. “I think Briedis had a long layoff before the first fight [with Opetaia] and had a long layoff for the second fight, coming towards the end of his career, but showed glimpses of what you could do.”
Opetaia is just a one-dimensional, one-trick pony who throws potshots only and does not like to take hard shots in his fights. Again, he’s only fought one notable fighter during his entire career, Briedis, and didn’t look good in their second contest.
By now, Opetaia should have already fought these cruiserweights:
– Chris Billiam-Smith
– Richard Riakporhe
– Lawrence Okolie
– Isaac Chamberlain
– Gilberto Ramirez
– Noel Mikaelyan
“I think he humanized Opetaia in terms of the hype. For me, I see fighters for what they are. I think Opetaia is a fantastic fighter, but I never bought into the hype that he was unbeatable,” said Billiam-Smith.
It was obvious a years ago that Opetaia was being matched against marginal opposition, and it was surprising that it’s only now that he’s hitting 30 that his management finally stepped him up briefly against a good opponent for his clash against Briedis. However, they’re now returning him to the same weak matchmaking by having him face Massey.
“He’s a fantastic champion; Briedis was a good fighter but just a little bit over the hill,” said Billiam-Smith.” He knew that, and thst’s why he retired. He probably didn’t quite have the same in him. He had a lot of hard fights. He had two Super Series back-to-back.
“Obviously, he lost to Usyk in the first one and won the second one [against Yuniel Dorticos]. He’s had some tough fights in that time and boxed everyone over the years, and that’s going to take it out of you.
“I’ve been in his training camps, and I think he overdid in training camps. He was having three spars a week, 15 rounds at some point. You’re not getting the best rounds in those 15 rounds. He was just getting through them,” said Billiam-Smith about Briedis.
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