Jai Opetaia: Why is he not moving up to HW?

@Mitch87 would literally set his CV on fire.

Does not look great when his best wins are against an old man twice at the end of his career.

Zurdo and CBS at least take fights with jeopardy.

 

Briedis was Ring Magazine champion.

Zurdo is only fighting Dorticos as it's his mandatory. Opetaia has been calling for unifications but the other champions don't want to fight him. Hopefully "His Excellency" Turki Al-Shaikh can pay up.

 

Over multiple extant champions?

 

Personally I'd rather see him rule the cruiserweight division with an iron fist than move up to heavy anyway, rather than getting involved in the heavyweight carousel for the time being

 

Although I have to admit I'd like to see the quality of his opposition improve, not feeling too wonderful about his upcoming opponent

 

His frame is thin for heavyweight.

 

The fight will happen.

 

Because he'd get chinned by all the top 10 heavyweights. He's hardly a defensive wizard and you can't be messing around with tanks if you're not. Even Usyk had to adapt a fair amount to ensure his success at HW and he was naturally a big cruiser, bigger than Opetai.

He could probably beat AJ because AJ is a bodybuilding bum but that's about it

 

He is big enough for the division, he walks around at ~220lbs and doesn't put on much weight between fights. For reference he is a similar height to Itauma or Kabayel but without the 20lbs of extra fat that those guys have.

As others have said, he wants to unify Cruiserweight first, which makes sense since they are all winnable fights for him and it will add to his heavyweight career by building his profile and giving him a a mandatory. Plus heavyweight is about to open up in the next year or two increasing his chances of snagging a belt.

A pity the other cruiserweight champs are avoiding him, even with Saudi money backing him. I hope they can drag Ramirez and Jack/Mikaelian into the ring with him soon.

 

Valid points, I haven't been following a lot of boxing media for a while, has he actually expressed interest in going up to heavyweight?

 

Belts are all tied up anyway, Parker is standing in line (and Kabayel deserves a shot too), and if Usyk loses to Dubois we might get a trilogy fight. Better to unify at CW while the HW division sorts itself out over the next year or two.

 

Wrong.

 

Oh, please. Even old Briedis is better than CBS and Zurdo combined.

Jai would beat both of those guys on the same night. Hence Zurdo is ducking him and CBS is not even on the radar as he’s completely outclassed.

 

The user you’re replying to only watches British fights mainly so in his mind he only remembers Opetaia sparking Jordan Thompson and Ellis Zorro.

Bivol said he would like to go up to cruiserweight and fight Opetaia once he deals with Beterbiev again, and Benavidez has spoken about moving up to cruiserweight soon. Hopefully someone steps up and fights Opetaia as he wants all the smoke.