IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia (27-0, 21 KOs) retained his title with a fourth-round, two-knockdown victory over David Nyika (10-1, 9 KOs) on Wednesday night at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, Broadbeach, in Queensland, Australia.
Down Goes Nyika
The fight was conducted at close quarters through the first three rounds, with the 6’6″ Nyika neutralizing Opetaia’s offense by wrestling him with his massive size. In the fourth, Opetaia got room to land his power shots and dropped Nyika twice to get the knockout. The second knockdown left Nyika face-down on the ground, badly hurt.
“I was expecting him to come out boxing. The first round was pretty intense. I wasn’t expecting him to come out so aggressively, and then after the first round, I thought, ‘Here we go. He’s going to start boxing.’ He just kept coming forward, and that’s what happens,” said Jai Opetaia to the media, talking about his victory over David Nyika tonight in Australia.
Nyika had no choice but to stay on the inside, attempt to maul Opetaia and stifle his power with grappling. When Opetaia had room to throw his long power shots from the outside, he was dominating Nyika, who didn’t have the offense or defense to deal with that. So, Nyika did the right thing by keeping the action close, not giving Opetaia room to gain leverage with his power shots.
Where Nyika got in trouble in the fourth round was when he gave Opetaia space to throw an uppercut, which hurt him, leading to several more power shots that put him down on the canvas for the first knockdown. Moments later, Opetaia finished Nyika off with a flurry of punches, ending with a brutal left hand to the head that put the challenger down face-first on the canvas. Nyika was badly hurt from the knockdown and stayed down for a long time.
“I respect David. I hope he’s alright. He’s a great fighter. I don’t think people will give him the credit he deserves because of the way we just fought. We literally just punched on,” said Opetaia. “I don’t think he’ll get as much credit as he deserves.
“I Want Zurdo!”
“The fight is done and dusted. I’m looking at what’s next. I’m chasing unification fights now. I don’t worry about the last fight,” said Jai.
Opetaia wants a unification match next against WBA and WBO cruiserweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez. Whether that fight can happen will depend on the money. Zurdo and his promoters at Golden Boy will want it to be financially worthwhile before they agree to a risky match against Opetaia.
I will say this: Opetaia landed many chopping punches on the inside during the fight, many of which hit Nyika on the back of the head. The referee should have said something to Jai during the fight to get him to stop with those rabbit shots because they seemed to take a lot of the fight out of Nyika. Boxing is weird. The referees are really big on stopping low blows but do very little to warn and penalize for the far more dangerous rabbit punches.
