A CRUISERWEIGHT CRACKER AS THE FURY VS USYK PRECURSOR
When Jai Opetaia stepped up to challenge Mairis Breidis for the IBF World Cruiserweight Title back in July 2022, many fans outside of the hardcore boxing circle didn’t really know who he was.
Two years on, he is now highly regarded as one of the most intense, fearsome and entertaining fighters on the planet.
An Olympian at the age of just 17, he was controversially beaten by the eventual bronze medalist Teymur Mammadov in the first round.
Two years on, at the age of 19, he decided to test himself in the paid ranks, and what a decision that has turned out to be.
Having barely put a foot wrong in his journey to 21-0, he faced the sizeable task of dethroning the Latvian Briedis.
Albeit on home soil, Opetaia was very much the underdog, and understandably so.
However, if there was a script written, the New South Wales native well and truly ripped it up.
Despite breaking his jaw in the second round with it literally hanging off his skull for the majority of the fight, he boxed his way to a unanimous points decision victory to become world champion at the first time of asking.
That performance caught the attention of the boxing world and since then, the Jai Opetaia hype train has well and truly taken off.
With emphatic KO wins over Brits Jordan Thompson and Ellis Zorro, Opetaia has developed a reputation as a fan favourite. On Saturday, he will be looking to maintain his undefeated record, and make it two wins from two, against the experienced Briedis.
Despite having a fairly low-key amateur career and start to life in the pros, Briedis burst onto the scene when beating Marco Huck to become the WBC world cruiserweight champion back in 2017.
Off the back of that, he entered the World Boxing Super Series and after a comfortable win over Mike Perez in the quarter-final, he suffered his first loss as a professional against the generational talent that is Oleksandr Usyk, who subsequently went on to beat Murat Gassiev in the final.
The Latvian did, however, prove he is a man that will not be denied and went on to win the tournament outright at the second time of asking when edging out Yuniel Dorticos in the 2020 final, claiming the IBF title. Victory over Artur Mann followed before the defeat to Opetaia.
So how will the fight go?
Well, the momentum is certainly with Opetaia. With two highlight-reel knockout wins since their first meeting, he has continued to improve and, at the age of 28, he is the younger man by 11 years.
Where Briedis could potentially have shot himself in the foot is his lack of activity.
Instead of staying active after the first fight, he instead pursued a fight with YouTuber Jake Paul, unsurprisingly to no avail.
That means the Latvian is coming into the rematch with no ring time in almost two years which, at the age of 39, is likely to impact his performance.
You sense Opetaia is starting to feel he possesses an air of invincibility and, against a man who he beat having boxed with a broken jaw for half an hour, expect him to look for the big KO and potentially send Briedis into retirement.
Southpaw vs orthodox, Opetaia will try to find a home for that looping backhand early on and if Briedis does have ring rust, it could well turn out to be an early night.
The way Briedis wins this fight is by taking it long. Opetaia has already shown he has a chin made of something from Easter Island, but what the former champion lacks in speed, he makes up for in experience and he will need to use all of it to get the win here.
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