Chris Billiam-Smith says IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia is not the next Oleksandr Usyk as some fans have been saying. He says he never lived up to the hype about Aussie Opetaia (25-0, 19 KOs) and felt he was “humanized” in his last fight against 39-year-old Mairis Briedis.
It’s unclear who said Opetaia was the next Usyk, as Australia’s opposition was extremely poor until he fought an aging Briedis. The opposition that Opetaia had beaten were lower level guys like Elias Zorro, Mark Flanagan and Jordan Thompson.
Usyk on another level
Casual fans may have naively labeled Opetaia as the next Usyk, but fans who know the sport saw him as a product of soft matchmaking. He had fought insignificant opposition in his nine-year career. Usyk is the gold standard for what a cruiserweight should be, and Opetaia is a long way from that mark. It is more the variety of branch.
There is no comparison between the talent of Oleksandr Usyk when he fought at cruiserweight and Opertaia. Usyk could do it all, show incredible skills and beat quality opposition. Conversely, Opetaia has only fought one good opponent in his entire career, and that was an older version of Briedis.
The first fight between them made Opetaia look better than it was because Briedis had come from a long layoff. In the second fight last May, Briedis exposed Opetaia, putting him under non-stop pressure, showing that he does not deal well with absorbing punishment.
Opetaia looked scared, facing the pressure, injured his beak, and facing the fire of Briedis. The fight showed that Opetaia is not cut out for fighting war and prefers to stay on the outside, throwing punches.
In his rematch in Riyadh, Opetaia looked like a bigger version of Shakur Stevenson against Briedis, and it was a real eye opener.
Opetaia defends his IBF cruiserweight title against unbeaten Jack Massey (22-2, 12 KOs) on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol on October 12 at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
This is another example of Opetaia fighting a lesser fighter instead of one of the talented cruiserweights. It is surprising that His Excellency Turki Alalshikh did not insist Opetaia fight any talent for him to be at the event on October 12.
“He’s super talented, Opetaia. He does a lot of things really well. He’s got quick hands, good feet, good shot selection, and he can punch,” Chris Billiam-Smith told secondsout on IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia.
“I think people who say he’s like the next Usyk, I don’t agree. I think Usyk is a much, much better fighter than Opetaia,” said Billiam-Smith. “I think Briedis had a long layoff before the first fight (with Opetaia) and he had a long layoff for the second fight, which came towards the end of his career, but he showed a glimpse of what you can do.
Opetaia is just a one dimensional pony, a trick who only throws poteshots and doesn’t like to take hard shots in his fights. Again, he only fought one notable fighter throughout his career, Briedis, and he didn’t look good in his second contest.
By now, Opetaia should have already fought these cruiserweights:
– Chris Billiam-Smith
– Richard Riakporhe
– Around Lawrence
– Isaac Chamberlain
– Gilberto Ramirez
– Noel Mikaelyan
“I think hObadiah is humanized as for the hype. For me, I see fighters for what they are. I think Opetaia is a fantastic fighter, but I never bought into the hype that he was unbeatable,” said Billiam-Smith.
It was obviously a year ago that Opetaia was facing marginal opposition, and it was surprising that only now that he has hit 30 that his management has finally cooled him down briefly against a good opponent for his clash against Briedis. However, now they’re going back to the same weak matchmaking that Massey is doing.
“He’s a fantastic champion; Briedis was a good fighter, but just a bit over the hill,” said Billiam-Smith. He knew that, and that’s why he withdrew. He probably didn’t have the same in him. He had a lot of hard fights. He had two back-to-back Super Series.
“Obviously, he lost to Usyk in the first one and won the second one (against Yuniel Dorticos). He’s had a lot of tough fights in that time and he’s boxed everybody over the years, and that takes you away.
“I’ve been in his training camps, and I think he’s learned in the training camps. He had three spars a week, 15 rounds at one point. You don’t get the best round in those 15 rounds. He passed them just,” Billiam-Smith said of Briedis.
