Jai Opetaia vs. Mairis Briedis II set for Fury-Usyk in Riyadh
Jai Opetaia will run it back against a familiar foe.
Opetaia will defend his Ring Magazine cruiserweight championship against Mairis Briedis on February 17. The fight will be the co-main event bout that will precede the highly-anticipated clash between Ring Magazine heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Boxingscene’s Jake Donovan was the first to break the news that Opetaia would fight on the Usyk-Fury card.
The vacant IBF world title belt will also be on the line between Opetaia and Briedis. The sanctioning body had ordered Briedis and Gilberto Ramirez to enter into a purse bid, but that was canceled Tuesday morning after Ramirez withdrew his name. Instead, according to Boxingscene, Ramirez will face WBA world titleholder Arsen Goulamirian this spring.
Opetaia (24-0, 19 knockouts), who resides in Sydney, Australia, announced on social media on December 18 that he was vacating the IBF world title belt after the sanctioning body ordered him to defend the title against Briedis. Opetaia proceeded to face Ellis Zorro five days later, also in Riyadh, scoring a highlight-reel knockout win in the opening round.
In the same post on social media, Opetaia stated the IBF was insistent he had to defend the IBF world title against Briedis or be stripped, despite there being an agreement between his Opetaia and Briedis for the Zorro fight to move forward. Briedis was not available due to recovering from a reported injury.
The clash between Opetaia and Briedis, who is ranked No. 1 by The Ring, is compelling. In their first fight, which took place in July 2022, Opetaia defeated Briedis by unanimous decision. Briedis entered the Opetaia as the Ring Magazine champion.
After the win over Briedis, Opetaia made one successful defense of the IBF title, dropping Jordan Thompon twice en route to a knockout win in round four. Thompson entered the bout unbeaten.
Briedis (28-2, 20 KOs), who resides in Riga, Latvia, has not fought since the decision loss to Opetaia. His other defeat was by majority decision to Oleksandr Usyk in a unification fight in January 2018.
After the loss to Usyk, Briedis won his next five bouts, including a knockout win over Poland’s Krzysztof Glowacki in June 2019 and a majority decision victory over Yuniel Dorticos 15 months later.
Breidis just turned 39 on January 13.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at [email protected]
