Jai Opetaia Continues His March To The Top

Australian/Samoan Cruiserweight Jai Opetaia secured the IBF Pan Pacific title on Friday in defence of his WBO Asia Pacific Title against Kurtis Pegoraro, stopping his opponent in the second at the Pullman Hotel in Brisbane, Australia.

Opetaia landed a perfectly timed devastating left hook to the body that ended the fight half way through the second round. The fight was main event on DDP’s the FUTR promotion. The

usually awkward and mobile Pegoraro, who in his last outing travelled to China beating an undefeated German heavyweight, had no answer to the power of Opetaia.

Opetaia, who is ranked 10 in the WBO’s world rankings record improved to 16 fights undefeated while stopping 13 inside the distance. Late last year he faced undefeated American prospect Frankie Lopez (10-0) and stopped him in devastating fashion in the first round to secure the IBF World Youth Title. Jai has already captured State and national titles as well as the WBC aligned OPBF title.

Opetaia’s manager Michael Francis from Xtreme Sports Management said the most exciting thing about Jai is that he is only 22 years old and getting better with each outing. Jai first came under his radar when aged 16 he was the youngest boxer ever in Australian boxing history to be selected for the Olympics (London 201).

That was riding of the back of winning the Junior Light Heavyweight World Championships in 2011. Matchmaker/advisor Stuart Duncan is now in negotiations to have Jai fight in the UK next as there are no other meaningful fights to be made in Australia. Negotiations to have Jai fight Mark Bam Bam Flanagan fell apart as Flanagan secured a shot to fight Kevin Larena for his IBO title in South Africa

later in the year.