Jai Opetaia came out on top on October 12, when he faced Jack Massey at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Battling it out on the Artur Beterbiev vs Dmitry Bivol undercard, Australia’s two-time world champion put on the line his IBF cruiserweight belt.
The scheduled for 12 rounds contest ended half way through. The 29-year-old southpaw put on a dominant performance delivering the heavy punches to the body and head. The fight was stopped, after the British challenger’s corner threw in the towel to save their fighter from further punishment. The official time was 2 minutes into the sixth round.
With the victory by TKO, Jai Opetaia made the first successful defense of the belt in his second reign. The Sydney native improved to 26-0, 20 KOs and remained undefeated.
31-year-old Jack Massey dropped to 22-3, 12 KOs. The defeat snapped his two-fight winning streak.
As well as prior to the fight, post-win Jai Opetaia said he wanted to face other champions next.
Mexico’s WBA titleholder Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (46-1, 30 KOs) and WBO champion Chris Billam-Smith (20-1, 13 KOs) are scheduled to battle it out on November 16 in Riyadh. Armenia’s Norair Mikaeljan (27-2, 12 KOs), who holds WBC 200 lbs strap, is scheduled to make his first defense against Canada’s Ryan Rozicki (20-1, 19 KOs) on December 7 in Sydney, Nova Scotia.