Ring Magazine cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia looks forward to capturing other belts in the division after relinquishing his IBF belt to take advantage of the chance to fight on this Saturday’s massive ‘Day of Reckoning’ card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, facing Ellis Zorro in a twelve round contest.
Promoter Eddie Hearn’s vision for the unbeaten 28-year-old Opetaia (23-0, 18 KOs) is to defeat the little-known British fighter Zorro (17-0, 7 KOs) on Saturday, December 23rd, in their card on ESPN+ PPV and DAZN pay-per-view and then capture other world titles at cruiserweight before making a move to heavyweight in the future.
Opetaia is expected to destroy Zorro fairly quickly in this showcase-level contest like he did his last overmatched opponent, Jordan Thompson last September, but it should be fun to watch while it lasts. The talented Opetaia, who many view as the #1 cruiserweight in the world, is being tossed a Hors d’oeuvre.
Ideally, it would have been better for Opetaia to take on Mairis Briedis in a rematch of their battle last year in July, which he won by a twelve round unanimous decision. Unfortunately, the 38-year-old Briedis didn’t have enough time to prepare for this fight, so he couldn’t participate.
Opetaia couldn’t pass up opportunity
“When everyone knows he’s the best cruiserweight in the world, you always want to win belts. When you’re the Ring Magazine belt, when everyone knows you’re the standout #1, and you get a life-changing opportunity, you can’t let it pass you by,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV, talking about Jai Opetaia.
“So, he’s got to go in there on Saturday, destroy Ellis Zorro, and get back out quickly,” Hearn continued about Opetaia, who is being stripped of his IBF cruiserweight title for taking this fight.
The 31-year-old London native Zorro has been mostly toiling away in the domestic scene in England, fighting opposition below world level and not getting much attention. Zorro’s last six opponents:
– Luca D’Ortenzi
– Hosea Burton
– Dec Spelman
– Ricky Reeves
– Jamie Smith
– James Farrell
Jai getting the attention
“He was kind of treading water for a time, and now everything is lined up for him to go and dominate in big fights,” said Hearn.
The comment about Opetaia from Hearn relates to the largely unknown opposition that he’d been facing during his eight-year professional career in Australia. It wasn’t until he got the chance to fight Briedis last year that he finally got an opponent that got the attention of the boxing world.
Taking part in this event on Saturday night in Riyadh will lead to bigger and better things for Opetaia’s career. In a perfect world, Opetaia would have gotten the bigger fights earlier in his career, but none of that matters now. He’s here, and this fight is the launching pad for bigger things to happen for him.
“This card is a big card, if not the biggest card in history. As long as everything got over the line when I signed. It is what it is. I have now, and I’m just looking forward to Saturday,” said Opetaia when asked whether he feels disappointed about relinquishing his IBF cruiserweight title to be on this card against Zorro.
“I think to win the belt, win all the belts, and eventually move to the heavyweight division and just be in big fights,” said Hearn on whether the goal for Opetaia is to recapture his IBF belt.
WBC cruiserweight champions:
- Chris Billam-Smith: WBO
- Artur Goulamirian: WBA
- Noel Mikaelyan: WBC
It could be difficult for Opetaia to fight all of those champions due to the problems with setting up fights involving different promoters, as some might be reluctant to have their fighter take a fight that they don’t feel confident he can win. What could change their minds is if Hearn offers enough money to make it worthwhile.
Opetaia needs the opponents
“We’re going to win other fights. There’s going to be other opportunities here. I’d still like to see him headline in a big stadium in Australia,” said Hearn. “I enjoy him fighting in the UK. There are big fights for him in America as well. Right now, he’s flying.”
It would be excellent if Hearn could get the cruiserweight-sized super middleweights like David Benavidez to move up to the 200-lb division to take on Opetaia in a massive fight.
Benavidez has the size of the cruiserweight, and he might welcome the idea of moving up to the division to face Opetaia if enough money was offered to him.
The 26-year-old Benavidez wouldn’t need to boil down massive amounts of weight for once in his life, and it should be a breeze for him to take this fight without needing to lose any weight. If not Benavidez, Hearn should offer the fight to light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol or Artur Beterbiev.
“Sometimes you tread water, and you really can’t see where you’re going, and then all of a sudden and then ‘Bang.’ It happens for you because he’s done the right thing. He’s got a good team around him. Mick has done a great job as well.:
Opetaia is on the brink of fame at 28 and just needs the right opponents moving forward for him to achieve great things with his career. Obviously, being stuck on fighting the likes of Zorro would be a dead end for Opetaia, but Hearn should be able to get the fights for him with the right money being offered to his opponents.
“As I said, when you’re working with the best cruiserweight in the world, you’d like the belts, but when you’ve got the Ring Magazine belt, what more do you want?” said Hearn, making it clear that the loss of the IBF title isn’t a big deal for Opetaia.
“Evander Holyfield,” said Hearn, about who his best cruiserweight in the world is.
“I respect that,” said Opetaia, reacting to Hearn’s choice of Holyfield, who held the IBF & WBA cruiserweight titles and won his first belt in his 12th professional fight against the dangerous champion Dwight Muhammad Qawi in a war.
“Only just behind Jai Opetaia,” said Hearn. “Oh s***, Tony [Bellew]. We got Tony the WBC world title. I’ll tell you what, Tony Bellew against Jai Opetaia, what a great fight. You never know. It might be easier now.”
That would have been fun if Tony Bellew could have fought Opetaia during his career. If they could take the version of Bellew that captured his WBC cruiserweight belt against Illunga Makabu in 2016 and put him in with Opetaia, that would be an interesting fight for the fans.
“Tony Bellew is retired, and he’s happily retired. I mean no disrespect to him, and he’s shown a lot of love towards me. A big shout out to him,” said Opetaia.
“I’m glad he said something reasonably nice because if he said anything negative, Bellew would have come straight out of retirement, and I don’t want to see that,” said Hearn, joking around.
