No bones about it, Jai’s the toughest
JAI Opetaia has claims to being the toughest athlete in Australian sport.
As if fighting with a fractured hand for seven years isn’t painful enough, Opetaia has made a miraculous recovery from broken ribs to ensure his world-title bout with IBF cruiserweight kingpin Mairis Briedis will go ahead.
Having received the green light from doctors, Opetaia’s showdown with Briedis was formally announced on Wednesday, with the pair to trade blows on Saturday, July 2 at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The date has special meaning. On the same day five
years earlier, Jeff Horn famously beat Manny Pacquiao at a packed Suncorp Stadium to become a world champion.
Opetaia, who had just celebrated his 22nd birthday, was among the 50,000 fans at Suncorp with stars in his eyes … and now he has a golden chance to emulate ‘The Hornet’ and scale the world summit on Queensland soil.
Seemingly nothing will stop the unbeaten Opetaia (21-0, 17KO). Not the busted hand he carried since his third professional fight in 2015. And certainly not a fresh injury he suffered five weeks ago, when he was sparring Australian cruiserweight rival Jason Whateley (10-0, 9KO) and copped a body shot which
cracked two ribs.
Opetaia’s promoter Dean Lonergan believes few athletes in Australia’s football codes could match the toughness of the classy southpaw, who had another 17 pro fights with his left hand fractured in three places before being ordered to have surgery.
“I would suggest Jai is the toughest athlete in Australian sport,” said Lonergan of Opetaia, who has sparred NRL legend-cum-boxer Paul Gallen to prepare for the biggest fight of his career.
“I honestly don’t know many athletes in this country who could go through the pain barrier like Jai.
“He trained and fought for years with a broken hand. He
initially didn’t want to get surgery, he wanted to keep fighting on with it, but I told him we needed to get his hand right if he wanted to maximise his potential in the sport.
“Then he broke his ribs in training just a few weeks ago which delayed this fight (against Briedis).
“After three weeks, Jai is back weight training. The surgeon has done a remarkable job putting his ribs back together, the only reason we have kept this fight together is because of the operation going as well as it did.
“Jai’s ribs broke so badly they crossed over with the force of the punch and he damaged his cartilage as well.
The 37-year-old Briedis will start as red-hot favourite and has lost just one fight in his decorated 13-year professional career.