Jai Opetaia-Huseyin Cinkara: IBF Orders Mandatory Cruiserweight Title Defense
Jai Opetaia respects his IBF cruiserweight title and wants to unify other belts but says the Ring championship he holds puts him at the top of his division. (Photo by Mark Robinson/Getty Images)
Jai Opetaia’s name has been floated as an attractive option for the winner of the upcoming cruiserweight title unification fight.
Actions will have to be taken if he likes that way more attractive than the one in his category.
The Ring has confirmed that Sydney’s Opetaia has been ordered to re-defend his IBF cruiserweight title against Huseyin Cinkara. The two sides have been ordered by the sanctioning body to enter into negotiations for their mandatory fighting.
Opetaia (26-0, 20 knockouts) is the champion of The Ring and holds the IBF title. He has yet to make a mandatory defense of any of his two-character title reigns. In fact, his failure to honor the previous order forced him to be stripped of his belt last December.
Cinkara (22-0, 18 KOs) was not told but followed the right steps to earn his No. 1 ranking. 1. The 39-year-old from Istanbul, Turkey via Speyer, Germany defeated Armend Xhoxhaj (18-4, 9 KOs) by second round knockout in the 24th round of the IBF. With the win, Cinkara was named the No. 1 contender.
Opetaia regained the belt three weeks later in a three-fight victory over Mairis Briedis (28-3, 20 KOs) on May 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Their bout followed Opetaia’s thrilling victory in July 2022 to lift The Ring championship and the IBF belt from Briedis.
The first win came at a heavy price. Opetaia suffered a broken jaw and underwent surgery for an unrelated shoulder injury. In total, it kept him out of the ring for 14 months. He has since participated in four RING title defenses in a span of 54 weeks.
However, his decision to face the untitled Ellis Zorro in December last year instead of Briedis—who was his rival at the time—led to the end of his IBF reign.
The fight was his first of three in a row at the Riyadh Season in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Opetaia’s second appearance in a recent boxing match was his rematch against Briedis. They were scheduled to meet in February under the scheduled Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury uncontested heavyweight championship. The entire program was pushed back by three months when Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) suffered an injury and was forced to delay the anticipated clash.
Their second act also went the distance, with Opetaia taking a well-earned decision in their vacant title fight.
Opetaia has since defended his championship in the sixth round on Oct. 12 for Jack Massey on the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitrii Bivol undercard.
The mandatory fight comes four weeks from the Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez-Chris Billam Smith WBA/WBO unification fight in Riyadh. There were rumors that the winner would be ready to go on to unite Opetaia.
However, there is still a lot of work to be done to get to that point.
