Chris Billiam-Smith says IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia is not the next Oleksandr Usyk as some fans have said. He says he never bought into the hype about Aussie Opetaia (25-0, 19 KOs) and felt that he “humanized” in his last fight against 39-year-old Mairis Briedis.
It is unclear who said Opetaia was the next Usyk as Australia’s opposition was extremely poor until he battled an aging Briedis. The opposition that Opetaia fought were lower level guys like Elias Zorro, Mark Flanagan and Jordan Thompson.
Usyk On Another Level
Casual fans may have naively labeled Opetaia as the next Usyk, but fans who know the sport saw him as a product of soft matches. He fought his nine-year career against lackluster opposition. Usyk is the gold standard for what a cruiserweight should be, and Opetaia falls far short of that mark. He is more of the copper variety.
There is no comparison between Oleksandr Usyk’s talent when he fought in cruiserweight and Opertaia’s. Usyk was able to do all this by showing incredible skills and beating quality opposition. In contrast, Opetaia only fought one good opponent during his entire career, and that was an older version of Briedis.
The first fight between them made Opetaia look better than he was as Briedis is coming off a long layoff. In the second fight last May last year, Briedis exposed Opetaia, putting him under relentless pressure, showing that he does not deal well with taking punishment.
Opetaia looked scared, handling the pressure, hurting his beak and facing the withering fire of Briedis. The fight showed Opetaia was not cut out for combat warfare, preferring to stay on the outside and throw pot shots.
In their rematch in Riyadh, Opetaia looked like a bigger version of Shakur Stevenson against Briedis, and it was a real eye opener.
Opetaia defends his IBF cruiserweight title against recently beaten Jack Massey (22-2, 12 KOs) on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol on October 12 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
This is another example of Opetaia fighting a lesser fighter instead of one of the talented cruiserweights. It is surprising that His Excellency Turki Alalshikh did not insist that Opetaia should fight with someone talented for him to be at the October 12th meeting.
“He is very talented, Opetaia. He does many things very well. He has quick hands, good feet, good shot selection and can hit,” said Chris Billiam-Smith. Second salt over IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia.
“I think people who say he is like the next Usyk, I don’t agree with that. I think Usyk is a much, much better fighter than Opetaia,” said Billiam-Smith. “I think Briedis had a long layoff before the first fight (with Opetaia) and had a long layoff for the second fight, which came at the end of his career, but showed a glimpse of what you can do do.
Opetaia is just a one-dimensional, one-trick pony who only throws potshots and doesn’t like to take hard hits in his fights. Again, he only fought one notable fighter during his entire career, Briedis, and didn’t look good in their second contest.
By this time, Opetaia should have already fought these cruiserweights:
– Chris Billiam-Smith
– Richard Riakporhe
– Lawrence area
– Isaac Chamberlain
– Gilberto Ramirez
– Noel Mikaelyan
“I think hObadiah is humane in terms of the hype. For me, I see fighters for what they are. I think Opetaia is a fantastic fighter but I’ve never bought into the hype that he’s unbeatable,” said Billiam-Smith.
It was clear years ago that Opetaia was beaten against marginal opposition, and it was surprising that it is only now that he is hitting 30 that his management has finally briefly pushed him against a good opponent for his showdown against Briedis. However, they now return him to the same poor matchups by having him confront Massey.
“He is a fantastic champion; Briedis was a good fighter but just a bit over the hill,” said Billiam-Smith. He knew that, and that’s why he retired. He probably didn’t have quite the same in him. He had very hard fights. He had two Super Series in a row.
“Of course he lost in the first one against Usyk and won the second one (against Yuniel Dorticos). He’s had some tough fights in that time and boxed everybody over the years, and it’s going to take it out of you.
“I was in his training camps, and I think he overdid it in training camps. At one point he had three spars a week, 15 rounds. You don’t get the best laps in those 15 laps. He just got through them,” Billiam-Smith said of Briedis.
