Jai Opetaia says he’s open to defending his IBF cruiserweight title against the light heavyweight champions Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol if either or both want to come up in weight to face him.
Opetaia would have problems with Beterbiev’s seek & destroy style of fighting, which makes it impossible for him to land his potshots. The Aussie’s inside game is nonexistent, and he doesn’t like to take punishment. Opetaia crumbled under pressure from Mairis Briedis in their rematch last May and looked like a mental wreck by the tenth. Beterbiev would be a nightmare for Opetaia.
Beterbiev (20-0, 20 KOs) is the more likely one of the two to move up to challenge the unbeaten Opetaia (25-0, 19 KOs) if he conquerors WBA champ Bivol on October 12th. His Excellency Turki Alalshikh could be interested in putting together a fight between Opetaia and Beterbiev for one of his huge events.
Capturing the undisputed championship at 175 will leave Beterbiev with no further goals to accomplish at that weight. If Beterbiev destroys the finesse fighter Bivol like many boxing experts expect him to, a rematch would be pointless. Moreover, Canelo Alvarez has no interest in fighting Beterbiev, and there’s no one else of note for him to fight.
Opetaia is defending his IBF belt against Jack Massey (22-2, 12 KOs) on the undercard of Beterbiev-Bivol on October 12th at the Kingdon Arena in Riyadh.
“Why not? That’s a fight that I would love to have,” said Jai Opetaia to Boxing News about a fight against Dmitry Bivol. “I respect Bivol. I would love to share the ring with him. That chessmatch, that stylistic fight that people watch over and over again. Those are the fights that I grew up watching.”
Opetaia, 29, has adopted a Shakur-esque fighting style, using the in-and-out approach and avoiding exchanges. We saw that in Opetaia’s last fight against Mairis Briedis on May 18th.
Instead of fighting in his old style of brawling, Opetaia boxed and resembled Shakur Stevenson. It wasn’t the most entertaining fight to watch due to Opetaia’s retreating approach, but he had to fight this way because he was getting beaten up by a motivated Briedis.
“I want to be the type of fighter that a trainer shows his fighters, ‘This is what you’re meant to do. We want to put on clinics and fight smart,” said Opetaia. “To have a fight like that would be huge. I focus on fighting smart. The knockouts come, but I like to think of myself as a good boxer.”
What Opetaia is saying here is that he’s no longer fighting in an aggressive manner now that he’s facing better opposition. It was easier for him to look great when he was fighting lower-level guys with no power, like Elias Zorro and Jordan Thompson, but things are different now that he’s fighting cutting-edge competition.
“Stylistically, the walk forward fighter [Beterbiev] against the guy [Bivol] that just keeps cutting angles, it’s awesome as a boxing fan and the science of the sport. This is a great fight and a great matchup,” said Opetaia.
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