Disgraceful fight breaks out at Jai Opetaia fight

Ugly footage shows punches being thrown as a brawl erupted in the grandstand during Jai Opetaia’s fight on the Gold Coast.

A brawl between fans was described as the “best scrap of the night” during Jai Opetaia’s blockbuster world title defence on Wednesday night.

Opetaia’s “KO of the year contender” — where he put rival David Nyika to sleep with a fourth round barrage — was the talk of the boxing world, but it appears not everyone as paying attention.

Video has emerged of a brawl between spectators inside the Gold Coast Exhibition Centre on the same night Opetaia defended his IBF cruiserweight title, The Sun reports.

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Despite a thrilling undercard where Justis Huni and Teremoana Teremoana both won in style with knockouts — some silly fans were too occupied to watch.

Footage online showed a disgraceful brawl between a small section of supporters in the arena.

In the video, a group of men are seen swinging punches and grabbing hold of each other.

And one fan joked: “Best scrap of the night so far.”

Another said: “Security are nowhere to be seen, they must be the ones recording.”

A third sighed: “Everyone is an MMA fighter now.”

There was also punches thrown outside the ring. Photo: X @paulmac_78.

Despite the ugly scenes in the crowd, Opetaia, 29, put on a dominant display to dismantle Nyika, 29.

He retained his title and called out WBA and WBO champ Gilberto Ramirez to a unification.

He said: “Ramirez, I’m coming for the belts. We’re coming for the rest of those belts.”

Ramirez, 33, is coming off a big points win over Brit Chris Billam-Smith, 34, to add the WBO to his WBA title.

And promoter Eddie Hearn also wants Opetaia to become undisputed champ at cruiserweight before moving up to challenge Oleksandr Usyk, 37.

David Nyika goes down. Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images.

He said: “Jai is going to pick up all the belts in the cruiserweight division to become undisputed.

“And then we want to push him into a fight with Oleksandr Usyk as well to try and become undisputed at heavyweight as well.

“You have to search for greatness, he’s good enough to do it.

“I believe he’s the only person now in the division, cruiserweight or heavyweight that can genuinely give Oleksandr Usyk a real, real fight.

“But to do it, we have to pick up every belt in the cruiserweight division first.”

Opetaia himself also threw shade at the legendary Ukrainian fighter.

“Oleksandr Usyk has to come see me. We have a new King in boxing,” he said, per leading boxing journalist Michael Bensonn.

“His name is Jai Opetaia. Usyk you are getting it. I’m coming for you.”

— This story originally appeared on The Sun and has been republished with permission

Originally published as Disgraceful fight breaks out at Jai Opetaia fight