Both cruiserweights a year inactive this month, both very cool fighters, both making me very sad. Jai Opetaia was being linked to Masternak for a bit there but it fell through, a money thing by the sounds, although it might have been a Jai in the UK thing, unsure. Chris Billam-Smith has also been linked to Masternak but it went quiet again - then there was a little noise last month and supposedly he is on a two-man list with Okolie for a November fight. Billam-Smith has said that Okolie is "not pushing" for the rematch but that if he doesn't fight him next he doesn't want to fight him so you'd guess that would be Okolie, unless Okolie has full on bottled it then Masternak will get the shout - but it'll be Dec/Jan not November I bet. Very frustrating. Papin, I haven't read a word or heard a whisper. He has a better excuse, maybe, on account of he is in Russia and Russian fighters are struggling to make fights, which is awful. But most of his countrymen have managed. Does anyone know anything about either? Any injuries or promotional disasters or anything like that? Is anyone particularly looking forward to one or the other emerging?
I would personally love to see it but Okolie does hold all the cards there. Stating the obvious that's also only 40 days away. So they got about a week to announce it to leave the bare minimum. If that's not set by this time next week, it's not getting set I don't think.
I thought Masternak was the one linked to Opetaia and Billam-Smith. Where'd you hear about Papin? Not doubting you at all, just genuinely curious. Last I heard about Masternak he was gonna be going to purse bids to fight Opetaia, but then he pulled out on the day of with the intentions of fighting Billam-Smith. Riakporhe ended up doing the same thing, which is why we got the Briedis rematch ordered, but then that couldn't get made due to injury so Opetaia had to fight Thompson. Cruiserweight as a whole is kind of a mess right now. Opetaia has had the above troubles, but you also got Badou Jack deciding to vacate to fight for the Bridgerweight title of all things, though at least a fight for the vacant belt has already been scheduled. Then there's Goulamirian... holy ****, Goulamirian. Dude started the year apparently wanting to make up for lost time, had a fight scheduled with Tommy McCarthy for April 1st, but it got postponed, apparently so Goulamirian could fight Billam-Smith instead in May. Obviously that didn't happen, and I'm still not certain why. Then the McCarthy fight got rescheduled two or three times before finally being called off, and it was announced Goulamirian was likely to fight Riakporhe next. Apparently that's also fallen through, and Goulamirian is now in some kind of legal scuffle with his promotional company. Very unfortunate these guys ain't fighting, but sadly it just seems to be par for the course for this division.
No, you are completely right I got them back to front. Not something to be tossed about willy nilly but there are stories about silent drug bans being served. I don't really believe it's true, I think it's more likely that people are trying to explain these weird absences that are so normal since Covid. But there are a couple of weird ones and Papin is one of them.
Seems like no one except Breidis wants that smoke with Opetaia What he showed against Thompson in terms of footwork, speed, power, & feints impressed me a lot & we already know he got a granite chin & heart based on the Breidis fight. So many fans commenting on social media saying he got a new fan after the Thompson fight & no wonder with such an exciting style Its a shame that he couldn't showcase it against better quality of opposition like Masternak or Riakporhe. Opetaia claimed that he doesn't believe either Masternak or Riakporhe were afraid to fight him but that the "suits" told them to avoid taking the fight, really unfortunate that guys like him can't get fights & Boxing today is represented to the casual fans by Ryan Garcia more than Opetaia
Yes, He said recently there are some positive developments in that directions, although it's not certain. Russians don't have great perspectives in terms of title fights right now for obvious reasons, so Papin is suppose to face Soslan Asbarov in domestic fight.
