IBF cruiserweight champion, Jai Opetaia (27-0, 21 KOs) retained his title in the fourth round, defeating David Nyika (10-1, 9 KOs) in the fourth round on Wednesday night at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, Broadbeach, Queensland, in Australia.
Down Goes Nyika
The fight was close for the first three rounds, and the 6’6″ Nyika was badly hurt by Opetaia’s offense by hitting him with his large size. In the fourth, Opetaia got a chance to land his powerful shots and knocked Nyika down twice to get a knockdown. The second blow left Nyika face down, badly injured.
“I expected him to quit boxing. The first round was very intense. I didn’t expect him to come out angry, and after the first round, I thought, ‘Here we go. He’s going to start boxing.’ He has always been open, that happened,” said Jai Opetaia to the media talking about his victory over David Nyika this evening in Australia.
Nyika had no choice but to stay inside, try to torture Opetaia and block her power by struggling. While Opetaia had space to throw his long shots from the outside, he was dominating Nyika, who didn’t have the offense or defense to deal with that. Therefore, Nyika did the right thing by keeping the action close, not giving Opetaia room to gain power with his powerful shots.
Where Nyika got into trouble in the fourth round was when he gave Opetaia room to throw an uppercut, which hurt him, leading to some powerful shots that sent him down to the canvas for the first time. Seconds later, Opetaia finished off Nyika with several punches, ending with a left hand to the head on the fence directly facing the canvas. Nyika was seriously injured in the beating and stayed for a long time.
“I respect David. I hope you are fine. He is a great warrior. I don’t think people will give him the credit he deserves because of the way we just fought. We just got complacent,” said Opetaia. “I don’t think he will get as much credit as he deserves.
“I want Zurdo!”
“The war is over and it is quiet. I look at the following. I’m chasing alliance wars now. I’m not worried about the last fight,” said Jai.
Opetaia is looking for a next unification bout against WBA and WBO cruiserweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez. Whether that fight will happen will depend on money. Zurdo and his Golden Boy promoters will want a financial return before agreeing to a risky match against Opetaia.
I will say this: Opetaia landed a lot of punches inside during the fight, many of which hit Nyika in the head. The referee should have said something to Jai during the fight to stop those fake rabbits because it seemed that the fight had taken Nyika out a lot. Boxing is weird. Referees are great at stopping low blows but do very little to warn and punish the more dangerous rabbit punches.
Source link
