Jai Opetaia, the IBF cruiserweight champion, is unhappy that the other champions in the division are not eager to fight in a unification match.
29-year-old Opetaia (25-0, 19 KOs) wants to become the undisputed champion, but he cannot work towards that goal without financial assistance from His Excellency Turki Alalshikh.
“I really struggled with the fact that fellow champions didn’t take those chances with both hands,” Jai Opetaia told Boxing News.
Instead of complaining, Opetaia needs to put some fire under his promoter, Eddie Hearn’s backside to come up with the dough to motivate other champions to fight. They will never agree to fight Opetaia unless Hearn offers them big money.
“I am comfortable to be uncomfortable. We are always chasing the pain in the gym,” said Opetaia to iFL TV when asked if he is ready for the deep waters against Jack Massey on Saturday night.
The other champions will all be underdogs against Opetaia with little chance of beating him now because he is at the top of his game. That will eventually change as he gets older, but he is at the zenith of his career now. It makes no sense for a champion to fight Opetaia without the money being in the mega-million range.
Therefore, they did not agree to fight with him, unless the money changes the life for the installation for life. Why would they want to fight Opetaia and lose his title if the money wasn’t massive? It doesn’t make sense.
It would be the same with Opetaia. If he was the underdog against someone he expected to lose, would he take the fight without the huge money? No way. It’s the same situation that Hearn’s fighter Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis is facing at welterweight.
He wants to unify the division, but the champions have no interest in fighting him unless they are paid retirement money. Hearn didn’t come up with the dollar signs that would essentially make him want to sell his titles.
Opetaia (25-0, 19 KOs) will defend his belt against #11 ranked IBF fringe contender Jack Massey (22-2, 12 KOs) this Saturday night, October 12th, in a 12 round contest at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. This fight drew very little interest from fans for obvious reasons. Massey is not highly ranked and was recently beaten in 2023.
“You’ve always looked at that carrot at the end of the tunnel, and now it’s in the way. So, we have to get it out of there and it continues to go towards that carrot. Until then, it prevents us from getting there,” said Opetaia about him potentially get the winner of the fight Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol and the winner of the unification bout Chris Billiam Smith vs. Gilberto Ramirez.
