IT is not often that one fight falls out of bed and is replaced at late notice by a better one.
But that is exactly what has transpired in the case of Jai Opetaia and the fulfilment of his mandatory obligations.
The IBF champion has made no secret of his desire to unify the 200lb division as quickly as possible but knew that he had to take care of a pesky mandatory from the sanctioning body who currently regard him as world champion.
The IBF had initially ordered their No.1 rated fighter Huseyin Cinkara to face Opetaia before the end of the year in a cruiserweight fight that basically nobody outside of the German’s team had even remotely noticed much less called for.
Cinkara, 39, is undefeated with a 22-0, 18 KOs record but has never mixed in company like Opetaia and a victory for the Australian looked as close to a foregone conclusion as is possible in boxing. The plan for Opetaia’s team, therefore, had been to take care of him and keep the IBF happy in a show back home before pressing ahead with one if not two unification fights during 2025.
But on December 14, Boxing News was told that an ankle injury would prevent Cinkara from boxing on Wednesday January 8 at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, leaving Opetaia’s triumvirate of promotional teams of Tasman Fighters, Matchroom and Goldstar all working on finding a replacement.
And, within four days of Cinkara’s withdrawal, it was announced that Opetaia would instead face the undefeated ‘Nice Guy’ David Nyika on that date instead. What’s more, given Nyika’s position at No.10 in the IBF rankings, it was an option that would tick the mandatory box, too.
Nyika was a two-time Commonwealth Games champion as well as a 2020 Olympic bronze medallist during his much-vaunted amateur career and he has made a promising if unspectacular start to life as a pro. His debut came back in February 2021 and his record currently stands at 10-0, 9 KOs although he is yet to mix it in world class.
But that injury to Cinkara has given Nyika the chance to launch his career into a different stratosphere if he can become the first man to beat Opetaia, who is 26-0 with 20 quick and quite clearly the best in the division.
What will work against Nyika here is that it seems essentially impossible for Opetaia to take anyone lightly. He has been preparing diligently in Saudi Arabia, sparring English prospect Lucas Roehrig among many others at the Mike Tyson Gym. “I’ve said it from the start that it doesn’t matter who’s in front of me,” he said. “I stay focused and I’m ready.”
Nyika will have to produce something extremely special to win here and a victory for the New Zealand man would be hard to beat for Upset of the Year in the proceeding 11 months of 2025. This should be fun for as long as it lasts but Opetaia is a special fighter and will close this show in the final third of their 12 rounder.
The undercard is packed full of Australian talent, including Matchroom newboy Teremoana Teremoana, who will bid to go 6-0 with 6 KOs on the night.
Elsewhere at heavyweight, Justis Huni, ranked in the top 15 with three sanctioning bodies, will look to continue his march towards the higher reaches of the division in a 10-rounder against the 10-1 South African Shaun Potgieter.
At just 25, Huni looks well placed to take advantage of the imminent sea change at heavyweight, with the likes of Oleksandr Usyk, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua all well into their 30s. The Brisbane resident appears to have the requisite attributes to become a force at heavyweight but cannot afford to slip up here against a man yet to box outside South Africa.
Potgieter’s only defeat to date came in 2022, when Keaton Gomes knocked him out in 80 seconds but he has rebuilt since then, including a revenge victory over his compatriot in April this year. Even so, Huni should sew this one up somewhere down the stretch to go 12-0, 7 KOs.
