Opetaia’s Next Title Defense Announced

IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia defends his title against mandatory challenger Huseyin Cinkara on December 6 at the Gold Coast Convention Centre in Queensland, Australia.

The fight comes as Opetaia’s ambition to unify the cruiserweight division stalled due to the shoulder injury of WBA and WBO champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramírez. This will be Opetaia’s third fight of the year, having defeated David Nyika and Claudio Squeo in his last two bouts. Meanwhile, Cinkara secured a win over Juan Diaz in his last bout. And with 19 knockouts from his 23 wins, he has the ability to stop his opponents.

“He’s not bad. He’s ballsy, I feel like he’s a gutsy fighter. He’s fast and strong and has some dog in him. But he’s never fought anyone like me. We just have to prepare well and anything he brings we’ve just gotta beat him. This is an opportunity for him. It’s big. I’m sure he’s getting paid decent. This is his world title shot. They don’t come around very often. I definitely feel I’ve got a target on my back, but the mindset’s never changed.

“We’ve just gotta keep working hard and delivering on fight day. I’m chasing unification fights, so I just fight whoever’s in front of me. We want these unification fights, and we’ve been pushing them for a long time, and we just want to get it over the line. We’ll take care of this fight first. I’m not looking past this guy, he’s a tough dude.

“I don’t think it’s gonna be easy and that I’ll just walk through him. I’m training for 12 rounds of war. I’m preparing for battle. It’s good to be back on the Gold Coast. It’s where everything skyrocketed. “We really kicked off after that (Briedis) fight on the Gold Coast. I broke my jaw and there’s a lot of history. So to be able to bring fights back, it’s pretty special. It’s exciting,” Opetaia said