Australian IBF world and The Ring lineal cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia returned to the ring after a year following his momentous win over former champion Mairis Briedis. Despite his long absence from the ring, the Australian had a statement win with his fourth-round victory over British contender Jordan Thompson at Wembley Arena in London on September 30th.
Jai Opetaia’s (23-0, 18 KO’s) last match, against Mairis Briedis (28-2, 20 KO’s), saw him winning the IBF and The Ring titles from the Latvian cruiserweight, thus marking his match with Jordan Thompson (15-1, 12 KO’s) as the first-ever defense of his world and lineal titles.
Despite the common issues of ring rust associated with fighters who have had a lengthy period out of the ring, Opetaia showed little to no side effects in his return against Thompson at Wembley Arena.
Both fighters came in with unbeaten records and a lot to prove. In Opetaia’s case, he had been virtually unknown or underrated before his victory over Briedis a year ago, and a title defense was sorely needed for him to prove he was a legitimate champion.
Jordan Thompson, on the other hand, seemed to have lingered in the same spot Opetaia was in before he faced Briedis. The British contender’s undefeated record was not all that convincing given the level of opponents he fought, but like Opetaia, there was an inkling that he had potential for more. Thompson’s fight with Opetaia would be the first time he would participate in a world title contest.
On September 30th, both were given the opportunity to prove their worth in their division, with high stakes at hand for both cruiserweights.
However, on the night of the fight, Jai Opetaia proved himself to be in a class apart.
Despite having been out of the ring for over a year, Opetaia fought like a fighter who had been much more active, stepping up his work rate immediately in the fourth round. Thompson, despite seemingly appearing to be the bigger fighter with his height, seemed unaccustomed to such intensity and appeared gun-shy.
This became all the more apparent in the first round when Opetaia caught Thompson clean several times with combinations and looked nearly ready to close out the fight while pressuring the Brit into the ropes before the bell signaling the end of the round rang.
From that moment on, Opetaia dominated. The second round became a continuation of the end of the first round, with Opetaia continuing to pressure Thompson with an onslaught of punches. Thompson, again, did not do much on his end, preferring to cover up while he was being attacked, which did not prove effective at all in the long run as Opetaia broke through his defense several times.
Though the Brit did attempt to counter and attack Opetaia, none of his punches seemed to faze the Australian, up until close to the end of the second round when he caught Opetaia with several punches, including a crunching right hand. Jai Opetaia also landed his own blows in turn, but there had been a brief spurt of an exchange that Thompson seemed to have won, even though the round clearly favored Opetaia.
In the third round, Opetaia reestablished himself with his work rate and relentless pressure. Like the end of the previous round, Jordan Thompson seemed to have much more energy and managed to fight back at most points, which made for an entertaining spectacle as the two cruiserweights fought fire with fire.
However, near the end of the first minute of the round, Thompson just did not seem to have the power to damage Jai Opetaia, and the Australian reacted with several harder and quicker punches of his own after getting hit cleanly by the Brit. Thompson suffered a pair of crucial blows, with one of Opetaia’s left hooks to the temple eventually dropping him to the ground, and it was immediately counted as a knockdown.
Thompson got up to beat the count but was in survival mode for the rest of the round and was seemingly close to being finished again at the end of the third when Opetaia had him on the ropes.
The fourth round proved to be the decisive one. With Thompson already looking behind on the cards before the knockdown and taking quite a bit of damage, Opetaia seemed to smell blood. Barely a quarter minute into the round, he landed a sickening right hand that buckled Thompson’s legs and sent him to the canvas after another couple of combinations.
Thompson appeared to be trying to get up while falling, but it was clear he had suffered too much, and the referee waved the fight off, resulting in Jai Opetaia winning by technical knockout and successfully defending his IBF and The Ring titles for the first time.
Opetaia’s dominant performance reignited the buzz that had surrounded him after he defeated Mairis Briedis in 2022. The Australian seems to have made a clear statement regarding his ability as a fighter.
With his first title defense completed in stupendous fashion, Jai Opetaia has now emerged as perhaps the best fighter in the division, although this matter is up for debate, given that there are three other champions operating in the weight class.
The most relevant path for Opetaia now is to unify against any of these other champions, and if that’s not possible, to continue to remain busy against worthy contenders.
The rest of the card notably featured unbeaten British IBF female super bantamweight champion Ellie Scotney (8-0, 0 KO’s) defending her world title for the first time following her June 10th win over Cherneka Johnson (15-2, 6 KO’s), which saw her become a world champion. Scotney faced Argentinian contender Laura Soledad Griffa (20-9, 1 KO’s), and in a tough fight, the Brit came out on top after a total of ten rounds, winning by unanimous decision.
Women’s British lightweight contender, Rhiannon Dixon (9-0, 1 KO’s), made good on her potential by coming out on top in her ninth professional fight against veteran and former world title challenger Norwegian Katharina Thanderz (16-2, 2 KO’s). Dixon handed Thanderz her second career loss, defeating her fellow contender by unanimous decision.
The rest of the card featured no real surprises, but it proved to be an entertaining night nonetheless for boxing fans at Wembley Arena. The card was promoted by Matchroom and broadcasted by DAZN.
