IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia (27-0, 21 KOs) retained his title with a fourth-round, two-knockdown victory over David Nyika (10-1, 9 KOs) on Wednesday evening on the Gold Coast Conference Centre, Broadbeach, in Queensland, Australia.
Down Goes Nyika
The struggle was performed at shut quarters via the primary three rounds, with the 6’6″ Nyika neutralizing Opetaia’s offense by wrestling him along with his huge dimension. Within the fourth, Opetaia obtained room to land his energy pictures and dropped Nyika twice to get the knockout. The second knockdown left Nyika face-down on the bottom, badly damage.
“I used to be anticipating him to return out boxing. The primary spherical was fairly intense. I wasn’t anticipating him to return out so aggressively, after which after the primary spherical, I believed, ‘Right here we go. He’s going to start out boxing.’ He simply saved coming ahead, and that’s what occurs,” stated Jai Opetaia to the media, speaking about his victory over David Nyika tonight in Australia.
Nyika had no selection however to remain on the within, try and maul Opetaia and stifle his energy with grappling. When Opetaia had room to throw his lengthy energy pictures from the surface, he was dominating Nyika, who didn’t have the offense or protection to take care of that. So, Nyika did the appropriate factor by protecting the motion shut, not giving Opetaia room to achieve leverage along with his energy pictures.
The place Nyika obtained in bother within the fourth spherical was when he gave Opetaia area to throw an uppercut, which damage him, resulting in a number of extra energy pictures that put him down on the canvas for the primary knockdown. Moments later, Opetaia completed Nyika off with a flurry of punches, ending with a brutal left hand to the top that put the challenger down face-first on the canvas. Nyika was badly damage from the knockdown and stayed down for a very long time.
“I respect David. I hope he’s alright. He’s an ideal fighter. I don’t suppose folks will give him the credit score he deserves due to the way in which we simply fought. We actually simply punched on,” stated Opetaia. “I don’t suppose he’ll get as a lot credit score as he deserves.
“I Need Zurdo!”
“The struggle is completed and dusted. I’m taking a look at what’s subsequent. I’m chasing unification fights now. I don’t fear in regards to the final struggle,” stated Jai.
Opetaia needs a unification match subsequent towards WBA and WBO cruiserweight champion Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez. Whether or not that struggle can occur will depend upon the cash. Zurdo and his promoters at Golden Boy will need it to be financially worthwhile earlier than they comply with a dangerous match towards Opetaia.
I’ll say this: Opetaia landed many chopping punches on the within throughout the struggle, a lot of which hit Nyika on the again of the top. The referee ought to have stated one thing to Jai throughout the struggle to get him to cease with these rabbit pictures as a result of they appeared to take numerous the struggle out of Nyika. Boxing is bizarre. The referees are actually massive on stopping low blows however do little or no to warn and penalize for the much more harmful rabbit punches.
