It was not the fight Jai Opetaia expected, nor even the opponent he had expected to be facing four weeks ago.
But David Nyika, a replacement for Huseyin Cinkara, surprised many with his performance against Opetaia today (January 8) in Broadbeach, Australia. He surprised those who had written him off as a 10-bout novice with no right to share a ring with Opetaia and he also surprised Opetaia, the IBF champion, who had fully expected the New Zealander to be overawed by the occasion and run.
Instead, Nyika stood his ground with Opetaia, exchanged punches with him, and even hurt the champion at the end of round two. That he was ultimately stopped two rounds later in the fourth had as much to do with the challenger’s ambition as anything else.
“He took the fight at three weeks’ notice,” said Opetaia afterwards, “and he gave me a dog fight. I thought he would come out here and play games, but he didn’t and I respect that. I take my hat off to David. Thank you.
“All that style s**t went out the window. That was a dog fight and I respect that. He wanted that belt. He kept coming forward and we gave the crowd a good fight.”
Opetaia admitted he felt the pressure of returning home to defend his belt in Australia but said he tried as best he could to use any added pressure as “energy”. This seemed evident, too, from the moment he and Nyika traded punches in round one and the Australian’s energy only increased when he saw that Nyika was flagging in round four and set about putting him out of his misery.
That, in fact, has become a pattern of Opetaia’s fights in recent times. All energy, he tests the mettle of his opponent early, samples whatever they have to offer, and then proceeds to break their heart when they sense he is only getting started at the point at which they have started to feel the pace.
Whether he can adopt the same tactics against someone like Gilberto Ramirez, the cruiserweight division’s WBA and WBO champion, remains to be seen. But Opetaia, now 27-0 (21), is eager to find out.
“Ramirez, I’m coming for those belts,” he said after beating Nyika. “I’ve been waiting for these unification fights for a long time and I’m coming for my belts.”
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