Hear: Opetaia to capture Cruiserweight, challenge Usyk for heavyweight titles

A boosted Matchroom promoter, Eddie Hearn, said tonight that IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia will “pick up all the belts at cruiserweight” and then move on to fight Oleksandr Usyk at heavyweight to become the undisputed champion.

Opetaia (27-0, 21 KOs) crushed challenger David Nyika (10-1, 9 KOs) and knocked him out in the fourth round tonight at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, Broadbeach, in Queensland, Australia. Referee David Fields waved it off after Nyika was floored by a left hand from Opetaia. It was the second takedown in the fourth round.

Hearn’s Master Plan

“I believe David Nyika will be a world champion in the future, but not tonight. He came up with the best fighter, not just in Australia, but one of the best fighters in the world in Jai Opetaia,” says promoter Eddie Hearn inside the ring after Obadiah’s victory.

“This is a guy (Jai) who should enter the pound-for-pound rankings. Great future ahead. Jai is humble enough not to talk about the name of Oleksandr Usyk, but I am not. That’s my job,” Hearn continued.

“Jai is going to pick up all the belts at cruiserweight to go undisputed, and then we want to push him into a fight against Oleksandr Usyk to try to go undisputed at heavyweight as well. I believe he is the only one who can give Oleksandr Usyk a real fight, but to do that we have to pick up every belt in the cruiserweight division first,” said Hearn.

There is still a lot of doubt as to whether Opetaia will get as far as fighting Usyk for his titles at heavyweight. To get that far, Jai needs to beat WBA and WBO cruiserweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez (47-1, 30 KOs), and he could lose that fight. If he prevails, he will still have to defeat WBC champion Badou Jack, which will not be easy.

Next stop: unification

Beating Zurdo will require some changes to Opetaia’s fighting style as this guy is smart, powerful and an excellent fighter. As we saw tonight, Jai can’t fight a leak on the inside and is very, very average. Ramirez’s bread and butter is fighting on the inside, and his volume punch is the best in the cruiserweight division. Above all, he is smart.

“I chased these unification battles. I’m coming for my belts,” Opetaia said tonight when asked if he would be interested in a unification fight against Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez in ‘three to four months if His Excellency (Turki Al-Shiekh) can make the fights what follows. his fourth round knockout win over David Nyika.