Jai Opetaia overcomes late scare and broken nose to reclaim cruiserweight world title

Jai Opetaia withstood a broken nose and a late flurry to triumph over 12 bloody rounds, ending a dire run for Aussie men in the ring.

Jai Opetaia is a world champion once again. Picture: Top Rank/Mikey Williams

Jai Opetaia fought through a broken nose and a fast-finishing Mairis Briedis to reclaim his IBF cruiserweight world title by unanimous decision in another bloody battle in Saudi Arabia.

After dominating the first three quarters of the fight and breaking Briedis’ nose again, Opetaia was stunned in the 10th, and – in remarkably similar scenes to their first fight in 2022 – ended the bout bloodied as the Latvian legend looked for the finish.

Opetaia broke his jaw in two places in their first bout on the Gold Coast, and repeated the heroic performance in the rematch, winning in Riyadh with scores of 117-111, 116-112 and 116-112.

Opetaia (L) didn’t have it all his own way. Picture: Top Rank/Mikey Williams

Opetaia revealed his nose was broken by an accidental headbutt late in the bout on the Oleksandr Usyk vs Tyson Fury undercard, as Briedis finished strongly.

“He headbutted my nose. It’s a bit broken, we’ll get it fixed and be back soon,” he said.

“He got me with a few good shots, he’s a tough dude. He kept coming through, he wanted it. I could hear the pain in the punches.

“We knew we were in for a tough fight. We were ready for 12 rounds of war, and that’s what we got.

“I knew he was going to come home strong. After he headbutted my nose, it rocked me a bit, but we finished.

“I broke his nose, he broke mine, we just kept punching on.

Opetaia banked rounds early on. Picture: Top Rank/Mikey Williams

“It’s 12 tough rounds under my belt. I’m not that happy with my performance, I know I can do better, but we go back to the drawing board, we learn, we progress and get better.”

The win sees Opetaia break the awful run of Australian men in world title fights in 2024, with Tim Tszyu, Michael Zerafa, Jason and Andrew Moloney and George Kambosos all losing championship bouts.

In doing so he defended his Ring Magazine title and reclaimed the IBF belt that was stripped from him in December.

Opetaia now joins Skye Nicolson and Cherneka Johnson as Australia’s only boxing world champions, and he will now look to unify the cruiserweight division.

“I want the WBO next,” he said. “I want the winner of Chris Billam Smith and (Richard Riakporhe) and after that we’re gonna collect the rest.”

Opetaia is Australia’s only male world champion. Picture: Top Rank/Mikey Williams

Opetaia dominated the first half of the fight and hurt Briedis twice in the second round.

The durable Briedis fought back each time though, attempting to slow Opetaia down by targeting his body.

Opetaia landed a huge left in the sixth which broke Briedis’ nose again, and two follow-up left hands jolted the 39-year-old’s head backwards as blood began pouring down his face.

Briedis’ corner somehow managed to stop the bleeding and the big punching Latvian had Opetaia stunned late in the 10th round.

With blood dripping from his own nose, Opetaia ended the round in survival mode and Briedis started the 11th on the attack.

As Briedis searched for the finish, Opetaia circled away and clinched, but still managed to land a few nice counterpunches in close.

Originally published as Jai Opetaia overcomes late scare and broken nose to reclaim cruiserweight world title