Opetaia shreds Billam-Smith for ducking him

The list of cruiserweights ducking/avoiding Jai Opetaia seems to be growing all the time:

Ramirez - found reasons to fight anybody else but and then got injured.
Jack - I believe he previously decline but looks like they may meet soon.
Billam Smith - offer after offer and no thank you.
Riakporhe - was Jai's mandatory and ran.
Masternak - was also Jai's mandatory and ran.

Am I missing any?

 

He’d wipe the canvas with all of them. And they know it.

 

It's a shame Soslan Asbarov got popped for peds. Because he was the real deal, he'd have been a big threat to Opetaia and no doubt he'd have took the fight, he fought Kudrayshov, Glanton and Papin in his first 5 pro fights.

 

They’re all scared shitless mate.

And they should be.

 

Yep Jai is one of the baddest men on the planet.

 

You can see why they are dodging Opetaia, he literally puts career ending/life changing beatings on his opponents and sent the last two to the hospital.

I know they weren't the top of the division, and Briedis was old, but how many of his opponents since he became champ have actually got back in the ring after he beat them?

By my count it's just Zorro who was "lucky" to get one punch KO'd in the first round.

 

I find it hard to believe that Badou Jack has the balls to fight Opetaia soon. How genuine are the chances of this fight happening?

 

Before it can happen, Opetaia needs to beat Cinkara and I believe Jack might have a rematch with Mikaelyan to get out of the way too.

Opetaia fights Cinkara on December 6th and the date being talked about for Opetaia-Jack is January 31st. A very quick turnaround and plenty could go wrong. Who knows, Jack might lose to Mikaelyan. It was razor close on all 3 cards the first time they met.

 

I've been a big fan of Jai since early in his pro career and i think the world pretty much agrees that he's the man @ Cruiser so seeing as there is a genuine worldwide reluctance to face him i reckon the natural progression for him is a step up to heavyweight , i think he should start quietly there with a few pathfinder fights then move on to challenging the top boys in the division .

 

I get where Opetaia is coming from as well, unifying Cruiserweight is an achievable goal for him with enough pressure on the other champs and some support/backing/money.

Where as Heavyweight is a bit of an unknown, he could go up and get KO'd straight of the bat, not that I think that would happen. There is just less tangible reward (there is money, but Jai has shown thats less of a priority for him) vs the risk.

 

Fair goes Ippy mate and that's as refreshing as it is commendable as there are very few TOP operators thinking along those lines in this day and age as all the belts unified under one undisputed champion is what all fans should be wanting , Good on the man .

 

Yes mate i 100% but I'd still like to see him as undisputed before he does go North to Heavy ( providing he doesn't spend his prime in achieving it) , the last thing we need is the bloke wasting his prime years waiting and then not having the gas left to give himself a fair go in the higher division .

 

I think it’s ridiculous to say zurdo is ducking, he’s fought consistently better opposition compared to jai, now do i think jai wins yes but just cause he got injured doesn’t mean he’s ducking.

 

He picked Billam-Smith instead of Opetaia, yeah, I get that fair enough I think most fighters would.

But then he supposedly hasn't been engaging or answering Opetaia's fight proposals. And goes on to say that they "have" to fulfill the WBA mandatory requirements, which would be the first time im hearing of the WBA being that strict, they would have allowed a unification if Ramirez had petitioned for it, but he didn't.

Then again Opetaia's team apparently sent offers that went un-answered and Zurdo suddenly has surgery that needs to be done. Ok cool, has his surgery, recovers and still won't respond to the offers.

If it was just one thing, yeah i could understand "ducking" being a stretch, but every thing together paints a pattern. Opetaia has been calling for this fight for nearly two years now, including sending multiple offers, while Ramirez has found every excuse in the book not to respond.

Now Opetaia has to defend his IBF mandatory again, because unlike the WBA the IBF is much stricter.

I think Ramirez was hoping Opetaia would give up and move to heavyweight, but Opetaia has now clearly stated that that isn't happening the other champs might be more likely to fight him.