Friday, December 5
GOLD COAST, Australia – Friday afternoon’s weigh-in, at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, where on Saturday the champion Jai Opetaia and his mandatory challenger Huseyin Cinkara will contest the IBF cruiserweight title, was the latest that was ceremonial. The fighters involved in Saturday’s promotion had weighed in, behind closed doors, on Friday morning.
That fighters have longer to refuel and rehydrate typically means that the existence of ceremonial weigh-ins make fights safer – at least on the occasions when the additional recovery time before the fight starts doesn’t present a considerably bigger fighter with a more significant physical advantage than he or she was previously on course to have. What’s consistent, regardless, is how much healthier and therefore how much more photogenic fighters appear at ceremonial weigh-ins, which in turn can strengthen a promoter or broadcaster’s attempts to sell a fight.
The job of Stan, the influential Australian broadcaster that has the Opetaia-Cinkara pay-per-view to sell after entering an agreement with Tasman Fighters, will have been made easier, but their on-screen talent could repeatedly be heard doing their very best to make Opetaia’s third title defence of 2025 seem the most important of all.
Essential to most, if not all, weigh-ins, are dance music playlists used to enhance the occasion. On Friday the songs of the celebrated group Rufus du Sol – having so recently finished, in Sydney, the highest selling electronic music tour of all time; one on which they reportedly sold 750,000 tickets and reached 1.5m fans – and the DJ FISHER, he of residencies on the party island of Ibiza, were among those that could be heard providing an Australian flavour to the otherwise routine task of professional fighters weighing in at the weight at which they are supposed to weigh.
Similarly essential are fighters’ bloated entourages seeking to revel in the limelight for however long they can, but Opetaia’s, though surrounded by those close to him, appears a rare exception to that rule.
BoxingScene first witnessed how closely Opetaia and Cinkara were stood to each other while they watched the undercard fighters face off and “make weight”, and how no attempts were made from either fighter or those alongside them to invade the other group’s personal space, painting the picture of a rare sense of security and mutual respect. When they were then called to the stage, some of those around Opetaia remained where they were, because they apparently had little desire to appear on camera and because they apparently were aware that Opetaia didn’t require their support. Even Opetaia’s father and trainer Tapu kept his distance, demonstrating again that the champion and those he keeps around him continue to keep their feet on the ground.
After the weigh-in had concluded, the extroverted Teremoana Teremoana – from nearby Brisbane – was among those who remained at the Gold Coast Exhibition Centre the soak up the atmosphere. Spencer Brown was also present, and told BoxingScene that he had arrived from Dubai less than 24 hours earlier and would be flying all the way back to the UK, for a meeting with Tyson Fury, within a matter of days.
When the Turkish German Cinkara weighed in he wore the same fur hat shown in all of the marketing material promoting Saturday’s fight which, he explained to BoxingScene is “the dress of Turkish warriors, back in the day”.
“They used to go to war – they’d wear that hat and cap to war,” he continued. “I’m just representing our people. From 500AD onwards – thousands of years we’ve been wearing this. It’s in my blood – it’s who I am. I love my history, so I like to show my history to show my people.
“I’m keeping it quiet [whether I’ll wear it to the ring tomorrow], because there’s another costume I’m going to bring in.”
Cinkara is as proud of his Turkish roots as Opetaia is proud that his are Samoan, which perhaps contributes to the respect that exists between them. It’s probable that Opetaia also respects Cinkara’s determination to fight him, given the extent to which he feels he has been avoided by Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez and Badou Jack, as was most recently demonstrated when plans for Ramirez to fight David Benavidez were revealed.
“Mick [Francis is] our promoter, he’s pissed off at that,” the super middleweight Max McIntyre, among Opetaia’s sparring partners, told BoxingScene, “but ‘cause Jai’s got a fight coming up he says ‘It doesn’t fucking matter’. ‘It doesn’t matter until I’ve gotten past this guy anyway.’
“I think he’s just really focused on the task at hand and not thinking about it. That would have to annoy you. It’s hard, ‘cause that’s a big-money fight, Benavidez-Gilberto Ramirez.”
The biggest loser of Friday’s weigh-in being ceremonial may yet prove to be Paul Fleming, who after almost three years of inactivity is moving up from super featherweight to junior welterweight to fight the younger, fresher, bigger Jake Wyllie in perhaps the most competitive undercard match-up on the bill. Fleming, regardless, looked better on the scales than he perhaps had been expected to, but it was Wyllie, as has come to be expected of him, who looked strong at the weight.
