IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia (27-0, 21 KOs) retained his title with a fourth-round two-knockout victory over David Nyika (10-1, 9 KOs) on Wednesday night at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, Broadbeach, Queensland , Australia.
Down goes Nyika
The fight was close throughout the first three rounds, with the 6’6″ Nyika neutralizing Opetaia’s offense by fighting him with his sheer size. In the fourth, Opetaia got space for his power shots and dropped Nyika twice for the knockout. The second knockdown left Nyika face down on the ground, badly injured.
“I expected him to come out boxing. The first round was quite intense. I didn’t expect him to come out so aggressive, and then after the first round I thought, ‘Let’s go. He will start boxing.’ He just kept pointing out, and it happens,” said Jai Opetaia to to the mediatalking about tonight’s win over David Nyika in Australia.
Nyika had no choice but to stay inside, try to crush Opetai and stifle his power by grappling. When Opetaia had the space to throw his long powerful shots from the outside, he dominated Nyika, who didn’t have the offense or defense to deal with it. So, Nyika did the right thing by keeping the action close, not giving Opetaia the space to get the upper hand with his powerful punches.
Where Nyika ran into trouble in the fourth round was when he gave Opetaia room to throw an uppercut, which hurt him, which led to a few more hard punches that sent him to the canvas for the first knockdown. Moments later, Opetaia finished off Nyika with a flurry of punches, culminating in a brutal left hand to the head that sent the challenger face-first to the canvas. Nyika was badly injured from the knockdown and lay down for a long time.
“I respect David. I hope he is well. He is 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 kept going,” Opetaia said. “I don’t think he’s going to get as much credit as he deserves.
“I want Zurdo!”
“The fight is over and done away with. I’m looking at what’s next. Now I am pursuing unification battles. I am not worried about the last fight,” said Jai.
Opetaia wants his next unification match against WBA and WBO cruiserweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez. Whether that fight will happen will depend on the money. Zurdo and his promoters at Golden Boy will want it to pay off financially before agreeing to a risky match against Opetaia.
I will say this: Opetaia landed a lot of sharp jabs on the inside during the fight, many of which hit Nyika in the back of the head. The referee should have said something to Jai during the fight to get him to stop those rabbit punches because they seemed to take a lot of the fight out of Nyika. Boxing is weird. Referees are very good at stopping low kicks, but they give very little warning and punishment for far more dangerous rabbit punches.
