Jai Opetaia is continuing his mission to take over the cruiserweight division, but former promoter Eddie Hearn believes that he has the man to disrupt Opetaia’s momentum and hand the Aussie his first defeat.
Opetaia was stripped of his IBF cruiserweight title for the second time shortly after he announced his switch to Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing earlier this year, but the hard-hitting southpaw remains as the lineal champion, with his 31-fight undefeated record intact.
This year, despite launching a lawsuit against the IBF, Opetaia has refused to let out-of-the-ring politics impact his activity inside of it, fighting twice in 2026 and overcoming both Brandon Glanton and more recently Noel Mikaelian.
That victory over Mikaelian could be set to tee up a three-belt unified cruiserweight world title shot next May, against the winner of December’s clash between WBA and WBO titleholder David Benavidez and WBC champion Michal Cieslak.
Although, Hearn told The Stomping Ground why he will soon be pursuing a fight between Opetaia and Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Pat Brown, who became the British champion in just his seventh pro contest on Saturday night.
“Because of what has been happening with me and Jai, I would love to see Pat go in there and dismantle him, if I am being honest with you.
“But [whilst] Jai is a great fighter, he gets hurt a lot by small punchers. Mikaelian is not a big puncher and he hurt him repeatedly in that fight.
“If Pat Brown hits Jai Opetaia on the chin, it will be over and he will finish him, but Pat has had seven fights. I believe that he can beat him now, we are not going to fight him now, but we want him next year.
“The only problem is that Jai Opetaia doesn’t have a world title and we want world titles.”
Alternatively, Brown may well target fellow British cruiserweight Viddal Riley in 2027, with Riley expected to compete with David Nyika for the vacant IBF cruiserweight world title in the near future, unless Opetaia is reinstated as world champion.
