Jai Opetaia

Jai Opetaia (born 30 June 1995) is an Australian professional boxer. He held the International Boxing Federation (IBF) title from 2022 until 2023 (he vacated the title due to a disagreement with the IBF). He currently holds the Ring magazine and lineal cruiserweight titles. As an amateur, he won a bronze medal at the 2012 Youth World Championships and represented Australia at the 2012 Olympics and 2014 Commonwealth Games. As of February 2023, Opetaia is ranked the world's best active cruiserweight by The Ring magazine, and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, second by BoxRec, and third best by ESPN.

Early life
Opetaia was born in Sydney, New South Wales and is of Samoan and European Australian heritage. He comes from a boxing family of four generations on his father's side and three generations on his mother's side, as well as sharing notable relations to Australia's greatest ever football goal scorer Tim Cahill and former New Zealand international rugby league player Ben Roberts. In mid-2020, Opetaia relocated his training base to the Gold Coast in an attempt to further his career and secure a world title boxing bout, a dream that would become a reality two years later in front of his new hometown fans at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Amateur career
Less than a month after his 16th birthday, Opetaia travelled to Kazahkstan to compete in the 2011 Junior World Championships and would win the gold medal in the light heavyweight division by defeating Germany's Melvin Perry 5:3 in the final. His victory marked the first time an Australian had won a junior boxing world championship.

In February 2012, still aged 16, he travelled to Hobart to compete in the 2012 Australian Olympic qualifying tournament where he would win the gold medal in the heavyweight division. A month later he competed in the Oceanic Olympic qualifying tournament held in Canberra and once again emerged victorious in the heavyweight final by defeating New Zealander David Light 15:10. In doing so, Opetaia became the youngest boxer to ever make an Australian Olympic team.

In the lead up to the 2012 Olympics, Opetaia travelled to Armenia to compete in the heavyweight division of the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships and claimed the bronze medal, losing a close 11:9 semifinal to eventual gold medalist Andrey Stotskiy from Russia. A month after his 17th birthday, he travelled to London to compete as the youngest boxer in the heavyweight division of the Olympics and was controversially defeated in the first round 12:11 by eventual bronze medalist Teymur Mammadov from Azerbaijan. In 2014, at the age of 19, Opetaia made the decision to end his amateur career in pursuit of a professional career.

Early career
Opetaia was scheduled to face Daniel Ammann for the vacant WBC-OPBF and Australian cruiserweight titles on July 15, 2017. He won the fight by a ninth-round technical knockout. Opetaia was next scheduled to face Frankie Lopez for the vacant IBF Youth cruiserweight title on October 21, 2017. He won the fight by a first-round technical knockout.

Opetaia made his first Australian Cruiserweight title defense against Benjamin Kelleher on January 17, 2018. He won the fight by a third-round technical knockout. Opetaia fought for yet another regional title on April 7, 2018, when he was set to face Lukas Paszkowsky for the vacant WBO Asia-Pacific cruiserweight title. He won the fight by a second-round technical knockout. Opetaia made his first WBO Asia-Pacific cruiserweight title defense against Kurtis Pegoraro on June 29, 2018. The fight was simultaneously a fight for the vacant IBF Pan-Pacific cruiserweight title. He won the fight by a second-round knockout.

Opetaia fought Navosa Ioata for the vacant WBA Oceania interim cruiserweight title on May 15, 2019, and won the fight by an eight-round technical knockout. Opetaia made his first title defense two months later, on July 27, 2019, against Nikolas Charalampous, while also fighting for the vacant WBO Global cruiserweight title. He won the fight by unanimous decision. Opetaia made the first defense of these two titles, and fought for the inaugural IBF Asia-Oceania cruiserweight title, against Mark Flanagan on November 16, 2019. He won the fight by an eight-round technical knockout.

Opetaia was scheduled to defend his IBF Asia-Oceania and WBO Global cruiserweight titles in a rematch with Benjamin Kelleher on October 22, 2020. He won the fight by a sixth-round technical knockout.

Opetaia vs. Briedis
Opetaia was scheduled to challenge the reigning IBF, The Ring and lineal cruiserweight champion Mairis Briedis on 6 April 2022. The bout was postponed on February 16, as Briedis tested positive for COVID-19. The bout was rescheduled for 11 May, and was expected to take place at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre in Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia. The bout was once again postponed on April 8, as Opetaia suffered a rib injury, and rescheduled for July 2. Opetaia won the fight by unanimous decision, with scores of 116–112, 116–112 and 115–113. During the fight, Opetaia badly broke his jaw in two places. Unable to give an interview following the match, he was instead taken directly to the hospital to undergo surgery to repair the fractures.

Opetaia vs. Thompson
Opetaia was expected to face mandatory challenger Mateusz Masternak in early 2023, but was forced to undergo left shoulder surgery on February 1, 2023. He requested a 60-day medical extension from the IBF before entering into negotiations with Masternak, which was granted on February 18. The two camps failed to come to terms despite the extension and a pursed bid was called by the sanctioning body for July 15, 2023. Masternak withdrew from the bid a day before it was supposed to take place. The IBF removed Masternak's mandatory status the very next day and ordered Opeteia to face the #2 ranked cruiserweight contender Richard Riakporhe instead. Riakporhe himself withdrew from the negotiations on August 8, 2023, shortly before a scheduled purse bid hearing.

The IBF designated former champion Mairis Briedis as the next mandatory challenger on August 10, 2023. The sanctioning body ordered the two to enter into negotiations that very same day. Opetaia's team requested an immediate purse bid in lie of a negotiation period. The sanctioning body indefinitely suspended the purse bid hearing on August 22. This allowed Opetaia to enter into negotiations with Jordan Thompson for a voluntary title defense that took place at the Wembley Arena in London, England on September 30, 2023. Opetaia defeated Thompson by TKO in the fourth round and made the first successful defense of his belt.

Opetaia vs. Zorro
On December 23, 2023 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Opetaia was expected to make the second defense of his IBF cruiserweight title against Ellis Zorro. During the fight week's early stages, Opetaia vacated the title when the IBF, the sanctioning body, insisted on a mandatory defense against former champion Mairis Briedis, who was recovering from an injury. Consequently, the IBF decided not to sanction the fight against Zorro. Opetaia won the fight by knockout in the first round. He reportedly earned a $680,000 fight purse.

Opetaia vs. Briedis II
Opetaia was expected to face Mairis Briedis for the vacant IBF cruiserweight championship on the undercard of Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk. The fight was initially expected to take place on February 17, 2024, at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but the entire event was later postponed after Tyson Fury suffered a facial injury in training. It was re-scheduled to May 18, 2024, and took place at the same venue as was originally planned. Opetaia defeated Briedis in the rematch by unanimous decision to become a two-time world champion and two-time IBF cruiserweight champion.