Cruiserweight Jai Opetaia predicts a hungry Tyson Fury performing at his best on Saturday night against Oleksandr Usyk in Riyadh.
Former IBF cruiserweight champion Opetaia recently briefly trained with WBC heavyweight champion Fury and formed a friendship with him.
Opetaia is fighting Mairis Briedis in a rematch on the undercard of Fury-Usyk this Saturday night May 18th at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. That fight is easily the best on the undercard, which is a rather empty one in terms of containing competitive fights.
A Hungry Fury Ready to Perform
“I feel like this fight we’re going to see a version of Fury that we haven’t seen for a long time. A hungry Fury. A Fury that can be beaten if he doesn’t perform well,” Jai Opetaia said to Skysports.
Fury certainly lost a lot of weight, as his midsection doesn’t look nearly as chunky as it did in his previous fight last October. He’s still flabby and could stand to use another training camp to pare off the last 20-30 lbs. That’s not going to happen though.
“This one, he can’t rely on that natural ability, he needs to put in the hard work as well and I feel like we’re going to see that,” said Opetaia about Fury.
What Opetaia isn’t saying is that Fury is taking a massive step up in class fighting Usyk from the ham & eggers he’s been fighting since 2018.
Fury was on the shelf celebrating for nearly three years after his win over Wladimir Klitschko and didn’t emerge until 2018 to resume his career. In the last six years, the best opponent Fury has fought is Deontay Wilder. Other than him, his resume is filled with fringe-level fighters.
A Heavyweight Chess Match
“I’m grateful for the experience and being around other champions,” said Opetaia to Boxing Social about training with Fury. “This is a heavyweight fight that I’m really excited to watch.
“This fight, this is where the science of the sport comes involved,” Opetaia said about Fury’s fight against Oleksandr Usyk. “I love that chess match of the game with a tall fighter that boxes. Obviously, both fighters are capable of knocking each other out, but I don’t think that’s the game plan here.
“This is going to be a very high work rate heavyweight fight. There’s going to be a lot if punches. I believe there have to be a lot of punches thrown to win the fight. I’m honored to be a part of such a historic fight,” said Opetaia.
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