By Ray Wheatley – World of Boxing
Newly crowned IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia had to overcome the adversity of having his jaw broken early in the bout with Maris Breidis according to the Australian’s coach Mark Wilson.
“I didn’t know it was broken until the 11th round when you can evidently see that something was really amiss with it,” Wilson told foxsports.com.au in Opetaia’s locker room after the fight. “I thought, ‘We got through that, we’ve only got one to go. Run. Run.’ I believe we were two or three or four rounds up, I thought. We were starting to maybe lose a couple late. I said, ‘Just move, mate. We’ve got to move. Don’t do anything silly. Move, move.’ We got through there.”
Breidis revealed after the fight his nose was broken in round one.
2 tough SOB’s. Each other broke something but still boxed a thrilling fight for the full 12.
Excellent fight. Despite his age and inactivity Breidis fought as good as he ever has. Just beaten by a better fighter on the night.
Where is the rest of the info?who wrote this article smh
His jaw was broken in the 2nd round it was stated on Australian news.
Sounds like a war report! 2 tough guys. Congrats to both for hanging in there and put there best efforts in the fight.
Remember that next time anyone calls either of these guys (or any pro fighter for that matter) a bum.
It reminds me of what Vitali Klitschko once said about Chess and Boxing: in Chess, everybody plays and nobody is an expert, but in Boxing nobody boxes and yet everyone’s an expert.
First time I had seen Opetaia fight, and was very impressed. Would love to see a rematch, as Breidis came on very strong late.
Assuming the Latvians team was smart enough to put a rematch clause in there. Breidis as the champion did travel to his challengers backyard, so he needed to have an out in case of. And you’re right about Breidis coming on strong and winning the latter part of the fight. There definitely needs to be a rematch, and I think fans would be interested in one. Unless Opetaia can get a unification with the undefeated Okolie, I don’t see a better fight for the Australian than a rematch with Breidis.
Probably got 2-3 fights worth of experience in one night.