With Jaia turning 30 this month and being way above anyone else at CW. I would have thought that he would be moving up to HW at this point. The money at CW isn’t comparable to HW. He looks big enough and tall enough to move up in weight.
HW is very logjammed at the moment. Opetaia would probably not get a title shot if he went up and won a fight or two like Usyk did. Theres times where a CW champ could do that. This is not one of those times. But hes just about to turn 30 if hes still on top in 3 or 4 years things might be different.
He wants to unify at cruiserweight. In a years time, the heavyweight land scape will be drastically different. If Jai moves up now, he has no chance to fight Usyk given that Usyk has to deal with Dubois. If Usyk beats Dubois, he has to face Parker or Kabayel. Although he will probably end up facing Fury a third time. So Jai feels he can get more accolades by unifying at cruiser first. If he unifies at cruiser, it might even make him the mandatory challenger for one of the heavyweight belts. Right now, if he moves up, which top heavy is even going to fight him? High risk low reward.
He wants to unify. He’s also one of Turki’s favourite fighters. Once Zurdo stops running from him like a startled rabbit and fights Opetaia for all the belts it will happen. And if you think Opetaia will be waiting for too long to get a titie shot at HW, given he’ll be the unified CW champion then you are mistaken. He’d enter the division as the number one contender. And if anyone thinks Jai is waiting for the HW division to thin out then they don’t know much about the guy. He’ll fight anyone, anywhere, anytime. The problem is that plenty of them don’t have the stones to fight him.
Theres two interim champs at HW and about to be a third though Huni and Wardley for an interim match is laughable. Someones going to lose Usyk v Dubois too. I don't see how he gets catapulted to the front of the line right now. He'd get placed in some peoples top 5 and have to sit around and wait like everyone else for Usyk to get tired of rematches. I'm not a CW fan but better Opetaia chase all the CW records then go up to HW and sit around waiting. Same thing for Muslim at Bridger. This is not the time for other weight champs to make a HW challenge.
Makes sense to unify first. Locks in the title shot AND a legacy at the level he definitely can compete at (CW). Then he can come up claiming to be the next Usyk (as the next undisputed cruiserweight champ), take a couple of fights to warm up to the weight and then take the shot that's in the bank. I don't think he actually IS the next Usyk - but that'll be his angle... Usyks CW run contained more murderers and a much tougher version of Briedis in particular. I'm far from convinced Jai will manage to get a belt at heavy at all - it isn't impossible, I just have a few doubts... Time will tell.
If he is unified at CW he gets catapulted automatically. And that is exactly what he is trying to do. Unfortunately Zurdo is a coward who has run for the hills.
Not sure a World Champion boxer who has entered the boxing ring 48 times and faced Bivol in the lower weight class can be called a coward. Apart from the two Briedis fights when the Latvian man was 37 and 39 years of age, Jai Opetaia's padded record is not exactly full of marquee names. Looking forward to the fight when it happens and it will.
He's your typical no balls, can crusher, KIWI *****. Just kidding. Others articulated the reasons for his delayed entry into the HW ranks.
Zurdo and Billam-Smith both ducked Opetaia. Zurdo only fought Bivol because he did well against him in sparring and then he ended up losing every round to Bivol in Abu Dhabi lol. Opetaia's win over Briedis is way above any win Zurdo has had.