Former IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia (24-0, 19 KOs) spectacularly knocked out previously unbeaten Ellis Zorro (17-1, 7 KOs) in the first round on Saturday night on the super card at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Opetaia connected with a straight left that laid out Zorro to end it. Time was 2:56. Opetaia was stripped of his world title earlier this week, but he looked every bit a champion.
I knew Opetaia could ko zorro but not in the 1 st round
Great year for Opetaia
Clinical finish , very scary athlete.
Opetaia will be undisputed cruiserweight champion hopefully fight Bredis a chance win IBF cruiserweight title next if not one of the other champions
He already beat breidis
First time I’ve seen this kid, he looks sharp.
So, who’s next? That will be exiting. Who is willing to fight Opataia?
Shove that up your arse IBF, weak as piss your mob stripping him . Funny really, your loss some other organisations gain .
What a champion is Jai !!
Merry Christmas to all and a safe one .
Lol!!! Good for you Gary. That came from the soul. F the IBF and the entire alphabet soup. All the champs should dump the belts in the garbage collectively. It would go mega viral and perhaps the alphabet will finally get the picture.
Merry Christmas Pete
Opetai should win it back and throw it in the bin afterwards…..
Maybe his next fight will be someone with a top 1 to 15 ranking, just think if he didn’t take back to back optional fights against fighters out of the top 15 he’d still be champion and maybe unifying the division .
I understand the whole money argument and can’t fault him on that choice .
But don’t smash the IBF for forcing him to choose . They too have rules to uphold fit their organisation .
Maybe we should look at the promoters who’s picked the opponent for Jai to fight . Surely they could have gone with someone in the top 15 …… that would have kept both sides of the equation happy .
Just my opinion I guess
Briedis himself was not fit to fight, so Opetaia merely took an alternative fight in the meantime.
His options were: 1) don’t fight and don’t make any money, or 2) fight and make some money.
What’s up with My man ‘BOOTS’ it’s a shame a man that skilled can’t get a fight, with these scared ass boxers
Boots who? Lol
It’s more appropriate to call Opetaia “world cruiserweight champion” than “former IBF champion”. He’s the linear champ; the man who beat the man. Alphabet nonsense such as what played out last week should not have attention drawn to it.
Wonder if Jai has thought about the heavyweight division? He looks like he could handle carrying more weight and possibly gain more power without losing the speed.
Jai Opetaia goes up in weight challenges Oleksandr Usyk…..I believe it would be a fantastic battle and to be honest I would lean towards Jai.
So how about it promoters, enough money to be made?