Jai Opetaia will have to tend to old business before he can get his hands on a new belt.
BoxingScene has confirmed in the boxing news latest update that the lineal, RING, and IBF cruiserweight champion has been ordered to face IBF mandatory challenger Huseyin Cinkara next. The decision came as no surprise to Opetaia and his team—co-promoters Matchroom Boxing and Tasman Fighters—who anticipated the ruling given the limited grounds for exceptions.
The matter will head to an August 26 purse bid hearing, as the two sides were in talks for weeks but unable to reach a deal.
Australia’s Opetaia, 28-0 (22 KOs) was due to face Cinkara, 23-0 (19 KOs) on January 8 at Gold Coast Convention Centre in Opetaia’s current Gold Coast hometown.
Cinkara was forced to withdraw less than four weeks from the event due to torn ligaments suffered during training camp.
Opetaia went on to face David Nyika, whom he violently knocked out in the fourth round of their entertaining – if not one-sided – championship fight.
The 30-year-old southpaw has since added a fifth-round knockout of Italy’s Claudio Squeo – 17-0 at the time on June 8, also at Gold Coast Convention Centre. The venue holds a special place in Opetaia’s heart. It also housed his July 2022 IBF cruiserweight title win over Mairis Briedis, a fight which saw the 2012 Olympian overcome a broken jaw to prevail via unanimous decision.
Opetaia earned a repeat unanimous decision victory over Latvia’s Briedis last May 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The title win was one of three in a row in Riyadh, bookended by knockout victories over Ellis Zorro and Jack Massey. It also marked his second IBF title reign; he was stripped of the belt when he agreed to face Zorro in December 2023 in lieu of an ordered rematch with Briedis at the time.
A pair of hometown headliners this year ran Opetaia’s total to six consecutive defenses of the RING and lineal championship, more than any other cruiserweight in boxing history.
Comparatively, Cinkara is essentially a 40-year-old virgin on the title scene.
The middle-aged contender from Turkey – who was born in Germany, where the majority of his fights have taken place – has yet to challenge for a major sanctioning body belt through nine years as a pro.
In fact, his lone fight at the 12-round level was the one to guarantee his seat at the table. Cinkara scored a second-round knockout of Armend Xhoxhaj last April 24 in Nuremberg, Germany.
There was a brief delay in getting the call for a title shot, though. A ruling permitted Opetaia to enter a voluntary defense against Massey on the October 12 Riyadh Season card, with the promise that the winner would next face Cinkara within 120 days.
Opetaia was prepared to honor that request, before the abovementioned training camp injury that forced Cinkara out of the bout.
Cinkara has fought just once since then, a first-round knockout of Venezuela clubfighter Juan Diaz on April 26 in Sindelfingen, Germany.
Prior to the IBF reorder of this fight, Opetaia openly sought a unification bout with WBA/WBO titlist Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez, 46-1 (30 KOs).
For his part, Opetaia immediately agreed to stipulations provided by boxing financier Turki Alalshikh, who planned to stage the attractive matchup later this year. Those plans were shelved, however, once Ramirez underwent surgery to repair a lingering shoulder injury.
The positive spin is that Opetaia will now fight for the third time in 2025, to mark his busiest campaign in six years.
