IT WAS the summer of 2018, on a drive back from a hard day’s sparring, when Jai Opetaia and his father-trainer Tapu talked about leaving boxing behind for good.
The talented Olympian, who had surged to 15-0 in his first three years as a professional, was so broke that he could barely afford the fuel for the journey home and wondered if the sport he had dedicated his life to would ever pay him back.
As Opetaia reflects on that day, he stops. “F***, now you’re making me emotional,” he says, wiping tears from his eyes and rubbing them into his jogging bottoms.
“I remember that drive home so vividly. we just had no coin, we’d had a s**t day and we were talking like, ‘What’s the f***ing point of this?’ Both of us were talking about giving up boxing and just signing up for a local footy club.
“We had given boxing everything we had but we were getting nothing in return. People don’t know the rollercoaster I’ve been on. Remembering moments like that from where I am now just shows the fruits of the labour. It makes everything sweeter.”
In the six years since that day, Opetaia has moved to 25-0, 19 KOs, is the current IBF cruiserweight champion and arguably the finest 200lbs fighter on the planet. On Saturday, he makes the fourth defence of his title in what will be his third consecutive fight in Saudi Arabia, where he is a clear favourite with Turki Alalshikh.
Money, these days, is less of a concern but the fire still burns ferociously inside. There are fighters who wear their heart on their sleeve, and then there is Opetaia.
“I think I was about 18-0 before I got my first pay cheque,” he says. “Because my fights were so spread apart and it was so hard to get on cards in Australia that I had to invest in myself. C***s don’t know the f***ing journey we’ve been through, man.
“People now see the Saudi cards and stuff but they haven’t invested in themselves. They win a few fights and expect big pay cheques and it means they are missing out on good opportunities. All we wanted at the start was opportunities. We went on every card possible. We were losing money on fight cards, we weren’t selling tables, we were in the trenches.
“Never mind money for sparring or training camps, we didn’t have petrol money to get to that sparring in Sydney. We were struggling but we found a way and got on cards. It has been a f***ing long journey and that’s why it means so much to me.”
It was his July 2022 victory over Mairis Briedis that not only gleaned the world title but also catapulted him towards superstardom. However, it was a victory which kept him out of the ring for more than a year because he broke both sides of his jaw at the hands of the Latvian.
”I know I deserve to be here because I’ve been through those spots,” he says. “Those low points, and that one was not the only one. Eating through a straw for four months was one too, these are mental games. I’ve been there and picked myself off the ground so now I know what I have to do.
“Even when I broke my hand, I was in a cast for nine months and was like 117kgs, I was coming back from injury. I thought my career was over and that was the fight before Briedis. I went and got surgery and was in a cast for nine months and I just got really chubby and fat. I was drinking alcohol and all of that. I was a nobody then, I was a deadset nobody.
“I remember my first session back, I went in the gym and did two rounds of skipping, I punched the bag for two rounds and then I sat down and just said, ‘My career is over’. I honestly thought that was it… but 12 months later I beat Briedis. The emotional rollercoaster I’ve been through is f***ing insane.
“And you know what the key is: Just turn up. That’s all it is, just turn up. Get there. The hardest part is just getting in the gym. Early morning your alarm goes off and you just think, ‘F**k, what’s the point?’ Once you’re at the gym, you’re in business. The hardest part was going consistently but getting absolutely nothing out of it and believing in a goal that was so far away. But now we are here, it’s crazy.”
He is a heavy favourite on Saturday night, when 31-year-old Jack Massey attempts to turn the cruiserweight division on its head with an unlikely victory. Given the intensity with which Opetaia speaks, it is hard to imagine him taking anybody lightly, particularly considering he now has another mouth to feed back home. On July 1, he and his partner welcomed their first child, Lyla Robyn Opetaia, making this his first fight as a father.
“It’s a weird tangle of emotions but it’s all part of it man,” says Opetaia, who left Australia for England in September and will not return until after the fight.
“This stuff has to be done, it’s more fuel for the fire and we are here for a purpose. We’re not here to waste time, we’ve got a job to do and then I can go home and spend money on my family.
“The birth was a good experience. I cried, I couldn’t stop. Everyone asked if I cried when the baby came – bro, I was crying before, during and after, the emotion was coming and going. It was an awesome journey.
“I’ve been around babies a lot. We’re Pacific Islanders, there are babies everywhere in our big families. There’s a big age gap between my brothers and sisters so I’ve sort of gotten used to having babies around in the house.
“Having your own is obviously a different feeling but it’s a feeling I’ve waited a long time for. When you’ve got a good partner it makes life a lot easier. She’s a day one, she knows when I’m away, I’ve got to flick a switch to turn into a fighter. It’s why she doesn’t come to many of the fights because it’s hard for me to balance the soft side with the aggression.
“She knows all this. We’ve been together 13 years, childhood sweetheart, it’s been a journey, bro. She was the breadwinner back when I had nothing, we’ve come from f***ing scratch.”
The other person who has been alongside Opetaia for nearly every step of his journey is Tapu. However, Saturday night will be their first fight together in nearly three years, and their first with Opetaia as champion.
Having been trainer for the first 21 fights of his son’s professional career, the pair split. But they have come back together for this one and Opetaia Jr is adamant it is a risk worth taking.
“There were a few things we didn’t agree on, a couple of issues,” Opetaia says of the initial split. “But we’ve moved forward and grown as people and I felt like the break was good for us. Now we are back together and moving forward so it’s all positive.
“It’s good. It’s back to the roots, man. Back to the ability and the skill, stop trying to f***ing take everyone’s head off. I’m getting back to what got me here and I feel like I will showcase that in this fight.
“I have changed a lot since he was last in my corner, which was the fight before I won the title. It’s two completely different people, man. In and out the ring. It has been funny trying to find that balance and it took a few weeks but we’ve found it and I feel like it’s going to work. It’s good.
“He’s a great boxing coach, one of the best in my opinion. I feel like it was the right move, it’s smart and I feel like it’s all positive. It’s always a risk, a change always will be, but you’ve got to adapt to change. I feel good and I feel like it’s going to level us up.”
With that Opetaia is up. It is now six years since the conversation that nearly ended the pursuit entirely but he has never looked back.
