Jai Opetaia looked and sounded angry during his face-to-face with challenger David Nyika on Saturday to discuss their January 8 fight. From the start, Opetaia looked as if he was in a bad mood, as if he had gotten out of the wrong side of the bed in the morning.
His cocky mood worsened when Nyika didn’t flinch, showing fear and acting in the servile manner he seemed to expect of him.
Opetaia’s wrath revealed
Opetaia wanted him to cower and act submissive and he wouldn’t do that. Jai wanted to be in control and dominate Nyika during their meeting.
It was a signal of how insecure Opetaia is. He is clearly used to intimidating his opponents, making them submissive so he can dominate them when they get in the ring.
IBF cruiserweight champion Opetaia (26-0, 20 KOs) was upset when told that Nyika (10-0, 9 KOs) wanted a “pistol fight” with him on Wednesday night.
Opetaia, 29, said he wants 12 rounds of “war” with the 6’6 Nyika and believes he will knock him out. The two fighters meet at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, Broadbeach, Australia. The event will be broadcast live on DAZN.
“Sparring is sparring. I am ready to fight on April 10th. Don’t worry about the sparring. It’s a whole different ballpark,” DAZN Boxing’s Jai Opetaia told David Nyika.
“I feel I have done everything I should. I feel I know Jai well enough. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. I have had my eyes on Jai for a long time,” said Nyika.
“I know I can knock him out. I know I can hurt him,” Opetaia said. “These little gloves are a dangerous game. You want a gunfight. Let’s have a gunfight. I know it won’t be a gunfight. He’s going to box. He doesn’t want to get hit. It will be a chess match.
“So let’s go there, let’s play it. 12 rounds of war. I’m ready for it. You say you’re prepared for me. I’m prepared for anybody. I haven’t set my sights on anybody. I’m just training. I focus on myself; that’s it. There’s nobody out there that I’m going to beat or beat him,” Opetaia said.
Is Opetaia freezing again?
Jai talks big, but he wasn’t in any part of the war in his rematch against Mairis Briedis on May 18. Opetaia looked like someone with a bad case of battle stress. He came apart as he was subjected to a constant bombardment from the Latvian fighter and froze in the final six rounds.
Briedis dominated the second half of the game and did enough to deserve a draw. The judges gave it to Opetaia but it should have been a draw. Therefore, it is strange that Opetaia talks about wanting to have a “war” with Nyika; he is not good under those conditions. Where Opetaia is good is when his opponents aren’t throwing and he’s doing all the attacking. When it’s just him throwing, he’s fine.
“I beat myself up every day. Hurts, sacrifices every day, I’m ready for it,” Opetaia said.
“Sounds like you haven’t done your homework,” Nyika said when asked what goes through his mind when he hears Opetaia talking about him, knowing he wants to knock him out. “It doesn’t seem like perfect practice makes perfect.
“I have practiced, I have researched and I have gathered my knowledge. This is not the kind of sport where you can go in with one game plan. I have a game plan from A to Z,” said Nyika.
When Nyika said all these things, Opetaia looked furious, very upset because he had someone who did not bow to him and scrape the floor like a footman like the many second rate fighters he had built his record with.
