Opetaia against the world: shooting or freezing?

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 first moment, Opetaia seemed in a bad mood, as if she had gotten up on the wrong side of the bed in the morning.

His bad mood worsened when Nyika did not cower, did not show fear, and did not act in the subservient manner that seemed to be expected of him.

Opetaia’s anger revealed

Opetaia wanted him to cower and act submissive, and he wouldn’t. Jai wanted to be in control and dominate Nyika during their match.

It was a sign of how unsafe Opetaia is. He is clearly used to intimidating his opponents, making them submissive so he can dominate them when they enter the ring.

IBF cruiserweight champion Opetaia (26-0, 20 KOs) became angry when he was told that Nyika (10-0, 9 KOs) wanted to have a “shootout” 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 will meet at the Gold Coast Convention Center in Broadbeach, Australia. The event will be broadcast live on DAZN.

“Combat is combat. I’m ready for a fight on April 10. Don’t worry about combat. “It’s a completely different ballgame,” Jai Opetaia told DAZN Boxing to David Nyika.

“I feel like I’ve done everything I needed to do. I feel like I know Jai pretty well. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. I have had my eyes on Jai for a long time,” Nyika said.

“I know I can knock him out. “I know I can hurt him,” Opetaia said. “These gloves are a dangerous game. You want to have a shootout. Let’s have a shootout. I know it won’t be a shootout. He’s going to box. He doesn’t want to be hit. It will be a chess game.

“So, let’s go there, let’s play. 12 rounds of war. I’m ready for it. You’re saying you’re ready for me. I am prepared for anyone. I don’t have my goals set on anyone. I just train. I focus on myself; that’s all. I can’t imagine anyone out there wanting to beat him or beat him,” Opetaia said.

Will Obadiah freeze again?

Jai talks big, but he didn’t participate in any part of the war in his rematch against Mairis Briedis on May 18. Opetaia looked like someone with a bad case of combat stress. He crumbled when subjected to constant bombardment by the Latvian fighter and froze in the final six rounds.

Briedis dominated the second half of the fight and did enough to deserve the draw. The judges gave it to Opetaia, but it should have been a tie. That’s why it’s strange that Opetaia talks about wanting to have a “war” with Nyika; It’s not good in those conditions. Where Opetaia is good is when his opponents are not shooting and he is the one attacking. When it’s just him throwing, it’s fine.

“I am improving myself every day. Pain, sacrifice every day, I am prepared for it,” said Opetaia.

“It seems like you haven’t done your homework,” Nyika said when asked what goes through his mind when he hears Opetaia talk about him, knowing that he is going to knock him out. “It doesn’t seem like perfect practice makes perfect.

“I have practiced, I have researched and I have gathered my information. This is not the type of sport where you can practice with just one game plan. I have a game plan from A to Z,” Nyika said.

When Nyika said all these things, Opetaia seemed in a fit of rage, very upset that he had someone who did not bow before him and scrape the ground like a servant like the many second-tier fighters he had built his record with. with.