Australian warrior Jai Opetaia has lost his IBF cruiserweight title as a result of him pressing ahead with his fight with Britain’s Ellis Zorro on this Saturday’s big “Day of Reckoning” card in Saudi Arabia. Opetaia was told by the IBF that he has to fight mandatory challenger Mairis Briedis next (Briedis the man Opetaia defeated to become IBF champ last year) and that no exemption would be given.
Opetaia, angered at boxing politics – Briedis was happy to let Opetaia fight Ellis first – has reportedly signed a three-fight deal with the Saudi’s, this a highly lucrative deal (hey, it’s called prize fighting, after all) and he opted to bin the IBF belt so as not mess up these big fights.
“It’s bullshit. It’s no f*****g right,” Opetaia told Fox Sports in Australia. “They’ve really left me with no choice, you know what I mean? This is a massive card that I can’t say no to. So they’ve stripped me. But it is what it is. They can do what they want. I’ll get the belts back. All I’ve got to do is train hard, keep winning, and they’ll come back to me. I’m going to get the job done on December 23rd. When that one is done, we’re going to get another job done….The belts will come back. They have to. They can’t deny me.”
If YOU were in Opetai’s position, what would you have done? Chances are, you would have taken the big money, the chance to appear on a huge card, and you would have ditched the IBF belt the way Jai has. Who can blame him? Putting boxing politics aside for the time being (or ‘politricks,’ as heavyweight great Lennox Lewis once referred to them), Opetaia has a live underdog to get past in the form of the hugely motivated Zorro.
The fight on Saturday is a dream come true for Zorro, and the IBF would have been denying him a huge opportunity had Opetaia agreed to pass on the fight. Now, the two men will battle it out with the Ring Magazine belt on the line, this a belt nobody has taken away from Opetaia.
But Zorro will be doing his absolute best to win the fight and the belt on Saturday.
