Jai Opetaia retained his IBF cruiserweight title against David Nyika on January 8 at GCCEC on the Gold Coast, Australia. The two-time champion representing the host country claimed the win by knockout.
Sydney southpaw Opetaia (27-0, 21 KOs) first dropped the challenger from Hamilton, New Zealand, with a right uppercut. Nyika (10-1, 9 KOs), who took the fight on short notice, went down for the second and final time from a left hook, culminating a barrage of punches. The official time was 2:17 into the fourth round.
Opetaia made the second successful defense of the 200 lbs belt in his second reign. In his post-fight interview, the 29-year-old said he wanted to face Mexico’s Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, who holds the division’s unified WBA and WBO straps.
“He [Nyika] took the fight on three weeks notice, he came here to fight, he gave me a dog fight. I respect that,” Jai Opetaia said. “He came here and he slug that out, he wanted these belts and he showed that. I’ll take my hat off to David.”
“Ramirez, I’m coming for the belts. We’re coming for those rest of the belts.”
In Opetaia vs Nyika undercard action
In the co-main event, Australian heavyweight Justis Huni (12-0, 7 KOs) stopped South Africa’s Shaun Potgieter (10-2, 7 KOs) in the second round with a flurry of strikes. With the win, the native of Meadowbrook, Queensland retained his IBF Pan Pacific and WBO Global belts.
Among other Opetaia vs Nyika results, Max McIntyre (7-0, 6 KOs) of Australia scored multiple knockdowns and eliminated Abdulselam Saman (8-2, 1 KO) of Turkey in the fourth round at super middleweight. With the victory, he took the IBF Youth strap.
Local Ben Mahoney (15-0-1, 8 KOs) defeated Fan Zhang (8-3-1, 5 KOs) of China by unanimous decision to land the vacant IBF Pan Pacific super welterweight title. After 10 rounds, the scores were 100-90 across the board.
As well, Teremoana Jnr (6-0, 6 KOs) of Australia knocked out Osasu Otobo (11-2-1, 5 KOs) of Germany in the first round at heavyweight. Billy McAllister (3-0, 3 KOs) dropped and stopped Jordan Towns (2-3, 1 KO) in the second round of their all-Australian contest at light heavyweight.
In addition, Shauna Browne (5-0, 3 KOs) of Ireland took a split decision victory over Australia’s Taylah Gentzen (6-1, 3 KOs) at super lightweight, scoring a knockdown in the seventh round along the way. After 10 rounds, the scores were 97-92 and 96-95 for Browne, and 95-94 for Gentzen.
Atop the prelims, Runqi Zhou (9-2-1, 3 KOs) of China upset Australia’s Tony Ingram (6-1, 3 KOs) with a unanimous decision at featherweight. The eight-round contest ended with the scores 77-75, 78-74, and 78-74.
Plus, Kodi Shallali (1-1-1) of Australia and Albert Tu’ua (1-1-1) of Samoa fought to a majority draw at middleweight. After four rounds, one judge scored the fight 38-37 in favor of Tu’ua, while two other judges had it 37-37.
In a non-televised bout, Jag Guthmann-Chester (1-0) made his successful debut against fellow debutant Jai Williams (0-1) at super featherweight. After three 2-minute rounds, all three scores were 30-26.