Opetaia went to war and was seriously hurt by a geriatric Briedis; he was hurt by Nyika; and Cinkara had him hurt too. Undoubtedly Opetaia is the better boxer, but he does get caught and Wardley's power is savage. I would back Wardley by KO whilst behind on the cards.
It's funny cause a few fights ago most would say Opetaia I think Opetaia wins but he is vulnerable and too easy to hit to be a great heavyweight
A past it Briedis rearranged Opetaia's jaw. And a 41 year old made Opetaia's face look like he'd been in a meat grinder. A big imposing Heavyweight with KO power is going to do bad things to Opetaia.
He is indeed. His managers made it clear yesterday after the Cinkara fight that Opetaia would not attempt to move to HW until he unifies all the CW belts, which they plan to push to accomplish by year-end 2026. They said Jack already committed to a meetup if he keeps his WBC belt this weekend, and that they're confident that Mikaelian, were he to prevail, would step up. And they said Zurdo by now certainly "knows" who Opetaia is. BTW, is "Zurdo" Spanish for "duck" ...?
I don't know if anyone else was following Briedis' instagram or online activity, but he was completely uninterested by boxing for the past couple years. He had a really tough elbow surgery and he spent almost 2 years trying to get a fight with Jake Paul. For 6 months before Opetaia Briedis 2, Briedis was doing motivational challenges (pushups, pullups, running), running for political office in Latvia, and was even doing book signings 1 month before his last fight. I like Opetaia, but all this is to say that he is incredibly unproven at best.