IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia told challenger David Nyika that he’d got an image in his head that he’s some “indestructible dude,” and that’s not the case. Opetaia admits that he’s not indestructible, so he works so hard to “level up.”
Opetaia (26-0, 20 KOs) will face Nyika (10-0, 9 KOs) this Wednesday night in the 12-round main event at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, Broadbeach, Australia. The event will be shown live on DAZN. Nyika might be the best fighter Jai, 29, to have fought before during his 10-year professional career.
Opetaia wants to fight Oleksandr Usyk, and his promoter, Eddie Hearn, has already started early campaigning to make that fight happen. Usyk would entertain it, but it’s questionable whether he would be willing to return to cruiserweight to make it happen.
The “Indestructible” Illusion
“He beat, I wouldn’t say, a washed-up Mairis Briedis, but he wasn’t the fighter that he was. I know the guys that you’ve fought since then, the likes of Jordan Thompson and Jack Massey. Both of those guys went in with little to no game plan. That’s poor practice and poor performance,” said David Nyika to DAZN Boxing, talking about Jai Opetaia’s weak resume.
“I’d say you get the jump on people, and that’s a credit to yourself, but these guys didn’t have a plan B. They went in with very little idea of what they were stepping in with. Me myself, I know what you can do. I know you can hurt me.
“This is not a game, and I’m going to have to put my best foot forward to beat the likes of Jai because, at the moment, he seems like an indestructible force, but I’m going to prove everybody wrong,” said Nyika.
The truth is that Opetaia has fought only an over-the-hill Mairis Briedis during his career. The rest of the guys Jai has fought were lesser fighters, like Jack Massey, Jordan Thompson, and Ellis Zorro.
Overrated Champion?
He can punch, but he’s nowhere near great and not on the level of Oleksandr Usyk or Evander Holyfield when they both fought at cruiserweight. Opetaia is a basic one-armed puncher. If someone stands up to him, like Briedis did in their rematch last year, he runs.
“I’m not thinking about old fights. I’m leveling up; I’m looking forward. That is it,” said Jai Opetaia, reacting to being told that Briedis was not quite a washed-up fighter, but not what he once was when he fought him.
“You got this thing in your head that I’m this indestructible dude. I know I’m not. That’s what keeps me on my game all the time. I know I’ve got to keep leveling up,” said Opetaia.
Nyika may have been just blowing smoke up Opetaia’s backside by telling him that he views him as “indestructible” because they were face-to-face during DAZN’s interview. So, it’s not like Nyika was going to let him know what he really thinks about him.
He’s not the type of confrontational that would do that, but it doesn’t matter. He’s going to fight as hard as he can, and if he can out-last Opetaia, he’ll win. In Jai’s two fights against a faded 39-year-old Mairis Briedis, he suffered a lot of facial injuries and was forced to run in the second contest to keep from being knocked out. If an old Briedis could do that to Opetaia, Nyika can, too.
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