Jai Opetaia Is Winning, but He’s Fighting Down to the Competition

Jai Opetaia is racking up wins, but he’s facing the same lackluster opposition without raising the level.

A Pattern That Isn’t Changing

In Opetaia’s last fight against 40-year-old Huseyin Cinkara, it’s becoming obvious that is performances are beginning to drop off. He’s now fighting down to the level of his opposition because he’s not fighting the best.

Signs of Slippage Against Limited Opposition

He was hurt in that fight in round two and heavily marked up. One could tell from looking at Opetaia that he’s lost something from his game in the last two years. He’s aging.

Jai complains that the top fighters, like Gilberto Ramirez, are avoiding him. Even if that were the case, that’s no excuse for why he hasn’t done something about it by fishing for opposition from the 175 and heavyweight divisions to fight him.

Playing the victim and acting helpless doesn’t work. Fans view it as Opetaia being the problem because he’s not taking risks by moving up to heavyweight or pooling from fighters in the divisions below him. They’re not going to feel sorry for you.

“You Almost Become Them”

“You know when they say, ‘If you’re the smartest person in the room, go to another room?’ If you’re always playing lower-level teams, you almost become them,” said DAZN commentator Ade Oladipo on his channel, talking about how Jai Opetaia is repeatedly facing lesser opposition.

Opetaia looks like he’s sinking down to the level of the opposition. The many fights against mediocre opposition have eroded his skills to the point where he’s now taking punishment against guys he would have never had problems with in the past.

“You need to be playing the big games all the time. I feel like that’s with Jai. He’s almost become a bit the same because he’s fighting guys that he should be blowing away. No one is interested, and I don’t think there’s even a fear factor when he’s fighting these guys,” said Ade.

Opetaia’s last four opponents

• Huseyin Cinkara
• Claudio Squeo
• David Nyika
• Jack Massey