Jai Opetaia looked and sounded angry as he came face-to-face with challenger David Nyika on Saturday to discuss their January 8 fight. From the start, Opetaia looked as if he had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed in the morning.
His sullen mood worsened when Nyika didn’t flinch, showed fear and behaved in the servile manner he seemed to expect of him.
Opeta’s wrath exposed
Opetaia wanted him to bend down and act submissive, but he wouldn’t do it. Jai wanted to be in control and dominate Nyika during their meeting.
It was a signal of how insecure Opetaia was. He’s clearly used to intimidating his opponents, forcing them into submission so he can dominate them by the time they step into the ring.
IBF cruiserweight champion Opetaia (26-0, 20 KOs) became upset when he was told that Nyika (10-0, 9 KOs) wanted to have a “gun fight” with him on Wednesday night.
Opetaia, 29, said he wants a 12-round “war” with the 6’6″ Nyika, and believes he will knock him out. The two fighters will meet at the Gold Coast Convention Center in Broadbeach, Australia. The event will be broadcast live on DAZN.
“Sparring is sparring. I am ready to fight on April 10th. Don’t worry about sparring. It’s a completely different game,” Jai Opetaia told DAZN boxing David Nyika.
“I feel like I did everything I needed to do. I feel like I know Jai well enough. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. I have been eyeing Jai for a long time,” said Nyika.
“I know I can knock him out. I know I can hurt him,” Opetaia said. “These little gloves are a dangerous game. You want to have a shootout. Let’s shoot. I know it won’t be a shootout. He goes to the pit. He doesn’t want to be hit. It will be a chess match.
“So let’s go there, let’s play. 12 rounds of war. I’m ready for it. You say you’re ready for me. I am ready for anyone. I have no goals towards anyone. I’m just training. I focus on myself; that’s it. There’s nobody I can imagine wanting to beat or beat,” Opetaia said.
Will Opetaia be frozen again?
Jai talks big, but he wasn’t in any part of the war in his rematch against Mairis Briedis on May 18. Opetaia looked like someone with a bad case of combat stress. He fell apart when under constant bombardment from the Latvian fighter and froze in the last six rounds.
Briedis dominated the second half of the fight and did enough to deserve a draw. The referees gave Opetaia, but it should have been a draw. That is why it is strange that Opetaia talks about wanting to wage a “war” with Nyika; he is not good in those conditions. Opetaia is good when his opponents don’t throw and he attacks. When only he throws, it’s good.
“I defeat myself every day. The pain, the sacrifice every day, I’m ready for it,” said Opetaia.
“That sounds like you haven’t done your homework,” Nyika said when asked what goes through his mind when he hears Opetai talking about him, knowing he’s going to knock him out. “Perfect practice doesn’t seem to make perfect.
“I practiced, researched and collected my data. This is not the type of sport you can go into with one game plan. I have a game plan from A to Z,” said Nyika.
While Nyika was saying all these things, Opetaia looked like he was in a fit of rage, very upset that he had someone not bowing down to him and scraping the floor like a foot servant like many of the second rate fighters he built a record with.
