2024-05-15 23:28:33
Unbeaten Australian Jay Opetaia is able to take Beterbiev’s place.
As İdman.biz experiences on the subject of the “Championship”, on Might 18, a grand night {of professional} boxing will happen in Saudi Arabia. Along with the superfight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usik, the event card will characteristic many fascinating fights. Thus, the undefeated Australian Jay Opetaia will battle: he’ll problem the vacant IBF world champion title within the first heavyweight division with Mairis Briedis, and this battle will likely be extraordinarily fascinating to Russian boxing followers.
The very fact is that originally of this yr, the principle organizer of boxing matches in Saudi Arabia, Turki Al ash-Sheikh, stated that he had already discovered the subsequent opponent for the winner of the pair Dmitry Bivol – Artur Beterbiev. And this isn’t David Benavidez, for instance, and even Canelo, however Jay Opetaia.
“I am not shocked as a result of His Excellency Turki Al ash-Sheikh noticed us collectively and stated: ‘Let’s do the battle for you.’ “I inform him, ‘Truthfully, I need to end issues up in my weight class after which we will do the battle,’” Bivol advised Boxing Information.
Turki has repeatedly spoken about his curiosity within the Australian’s battle with the winner of the Bivol-Beterbiev pair, however, as everyone knows, Artur Beterbiev has been eradicated for an indefinite interval. Arthur’s damage is severe, and now it’s unclear when and in what kind he’ll return to obligation. Opetaia’s battle is scheduled for Might 18, Bivol’s is scheduled for June 1. If each win and keep away from accidents, then a battle between the sunshine heavyweight and first heavyweight champions might be organized in Saudi Arabia. And this will likely be, maybe, probably the most tough problem within the Russian’s profession.
Jay Opetaia was born in Australia and commenced coaching beneath his father as a toddler. Jay received the Australian junior championship 4 instances and received the grownup championship 3 times. In 2011, he received the Asian Youth Championship, and a yr later he certified for the Olympic Video games in London, and on the time of the Video games he had simply turned 17 years previous. Jay somewhat controversially misplaced to the sturdy Azerbaijani Teimur Mamedov and took solely ninth place, whereas many consultants famous the Australian’s potential.
In 2015, Opetaia made his skilled debut. The start of his skilled profession turned out to be tough: though Jay received, three of the 4 victories have been achieved by determination of the judges. Opetaia couldn’t transfer away from the newbie model, however quickly he settled into the skilled ranks, grew stronger and commenced to interrupt data. He received 12 early victories in a row, received a number of native titles and reached the worldwide stage. In June 2022, he defeated Mairis Briedis to turn out to be the brand new IBF world champion. Sure, on Might 18 they’ll once more problem the IBF title, since after defeating Briedis, Opetaia defended in opposition to Jordan Thompson, and was then stripped of the belt for refusing a rematch with Mairis. As we see, their repeat battle will nonetheless happen, irrespective of how a lot the Australian resists.
In his final battle, Opetaia demolished the undefeated Briton Ellis Zorro in a single spherical and as soon as once more reminded that he is without doubt one of the finest boxers in his weight. Jay has good anthropometric knowledge; he’s 10 cm taller than Bivol and has the identical quantity of arm span. After all, Bivol isn’t any stranger to boxing with opponents who’re taller than him; of Dmitry’s final fights, he was taller solely within the confrontation with Saul Alvarez. However on the identical time, Opetaia provides wonderful bodily power and a knockout blow to his dimension: the Australian has 19 knockout wins in 24 fights. And Jay himself is used to working with bigger opponents. Furthermore, in early 2024, Opetaia labored in Tyson Fury’s camp and was his sparring associate throughout preparation for the battle with Usyk, which at the moment was scheduled for February. After which there have been even rumors within the media that Opetaia knocked down the Gypsy King throughout sparring and due to this he left the British camp. These rumors weren’t confirmed, however even the truth that Jay labored within the camp with Fury speaks volumes.
Opetaia is younger and bold, he’s 5 years youthful than the Russian and, after all, hungry for victories. It additionally speaks for the Australian that the potential battle ought to happen within the first heavyweight division, that’s, will probably be Dmitry who will transfer up in weight, and never Jay who will battle. Bivol has by no means boxed a class increased and has by no means fought such huge opponents, no less than not in a aggressive mode. Sure, Dmitry is not going to lose the sunshine heavyweight belt, even when he loses to Opetaia, however on the identical time he’ll lose the coveted “0” within the defeat column. Whether or not this battle will happen or not, we are going to discover out within the close to future, however of all of the choices, even making an allowance for the potential battle with Beterbiev, the battle with Opetaia would be the most tough take a look at in Dmitry’s profession.
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