Jai Opetaia predicts he will “hurt” David Nyika and “put him to sleep” on Wednesday night in their headliner at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, Broadbeach, Australia.
Opetaia’s Anger
IBF cruiserweight champion Opetaia (26-0, 20 KOs) went from 1 to 10 on the anger scale when talking about the challenger Nyika (10-0, 9 KOs) having the nerve to say he wanted a “dogfight” on Wednesday. I don’t know why it bothers Opetaia so much that Nyika believes he’s going to win. The only conclusion I can come to is he’s insecure.
Opetaia got wild-eyed and looked like his blood pressure was boiling. If they’d put a BP cuff on him, I’d expect it to be 180/120 in the danger level. You could tell he’s not used to his opponents wanting to go to war with him.
Most of them are so scared, but not Nyika. He’s spotted a weakness in Opetaia, and he has the power, ring IQ, and 6’6″ size to take advantage of.
Opetaia vs. Nyika will be shown live on DAZN this Wednesday, January 8th. This will be Jai’s fourth defense of the IBF cruiserweight title he won in 2022.
“Two years ago, I didn’t have a cracker, and now I’m packing stadiums. It’s crazy the journey I’ve been on,” said Jai Opetaia to The Stomping Ground, talking about how quickly he’s become popular.
“We just keep pushing forward. We don’t look back. Any of these guys trying to take us from the top, we have to put them in their spot, and that’s what I want to do,” Opetaia continued. “I just want to fight. Knock me out. It’ll be the best sleep I’ve had in years since my surgeries,” said Jai about Nyika using post-it notes, talking about his goal of knocking him out.
“I’m expecting a hard fight. He’s a good, creative fighter, and he’s smart in that ring. He keeps talking about wanting a dog fight. Let’s have it, but he knows. He’s going to have to fight smart. He doesn’t want to get hit. Whatever he comes out with, that’s what we have to adapt to,” said Opetaia.
It could be a harder fight than Jai expects, and he’s going to have to be 100% ready. Nyika has a blueprint to follow by using the pressure tactics and power punching that Mairis Briedis successfully utilized to give Opetaia pure hell in their rematch last year on May 18th. Jai probably prefers to forget about that fight, but Nyika. He’s using it for study purposes and will look to duplicate & improve on the success that the Latvian had.
The “Sleep” Guarantee
“He’s a tall orthodox. He’s got a weird style about him, but he uses it well. We can clip him. I can f**** hurt this dude. He keeps talking about a dog fight, but if I hit this dude, he’s going to sleep, I guarantee it. So, how much of a dog fight does he want to have?” said Opetaia.
Nyika could surprise Opetaia with his power and the dog that he has in him because he’s coming to turn this fight into a full-scale war on Wednesday night. Opetaia is a bigger version of Dmitry Bivol, and he does not like it when he’s got someone who is throwing fire back at him. He’s fine when he’s the one unloading with his bombs, but as soon as he gets back, he goes into his Bivol mode.
You can tell that Jai admires the former WBA 175-lb champion Bivol, but his fighting style is very similar when he’s under attack. Apart from that, Opetaia is a different fighter because he’s not a combination puncher like him. He focuses mostly on loading up on left hands.
We saw that work well for Jai in his recent fights against Jack Massey, Ellis Zorro and Jordan Thompson. None of those guys are first-tier fighters in the true sense, which is why Opetaia dominated them with his left hand alone.
Where he couldn’t get over it was in his two fights with Mairis Briedis. He was getting lit up by the former champion and took a lot of punishment to his face. In the last fight, he didn’t look recognizable because Briedis hit him with some shots that turned him into a Halloween mask.
