Jai Opetaia and his team having chosen the most direct path towards securing his first title defense.

An immediate purse bid has been requested by the lineal and IBF cruiserweight champion ahead of his ordered fight versus former three-time titlist Mairis Briedis. The move came barely a day after the two sides were instructed to enter talks for what would be a rematch to their July 2022 thriller won by Opetaia via twelve-round decision.

Given the amount of time wasted that ended with two straight opponents withdrawing from the chance to fight for the title, Opetaia is no longer willing to leave anything to chance.

“I can confirm that representatives of Ring Magazine and IBF Cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia have called for an immediate purse bid in relation to the scheduled [defense] against mandatory challenger Mairis Briedis,” Matt Clark, Opetaia’s manager, confirmed Thursday evening (Friday local time in Australia).

Opetaia is represented by Tasman Fighters and Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing. Briedis is promoted by Wasserman Boxing, headed by Kalle and Nisse Sauerland. The two promotional outfits often work well together, including a heavyweight fight this weekend between unbeaten contenders Filip Hrgovic and Demsey McKean.

However, Opetaia has already spent all of 2023 watching fights fall through before he can even schedule a date.

The 28-year-old southpaw was previously ordered to next face Poland’s Mateusz Masternak. Plans fell through when Masternak bailed on the purse bid process.

A similar development occurred with London’s Richard Riakporhe, who was pulled from the mandatory title fight just hours before the matter was due to head to a purse bid hearing this past Tuesday.

Briedis (28-2, 20KOs) was the next highest ranked challenger in line, thus producing an unintentional immediate rematch. Neither boxer has yet to fight since their instant classic last summer in Broadbeach, Australia.

Opetaia—the youngest ever Australian Olympic boxer when he represented his nation as a 16-year-old during 2012 London—overcame a broken jaw in the second round to outpoint Briedis but spent most of the rest of the year recovering from the injury. He was then sidelined after he underwent shoulder surgery earlier this year, before he watched back-to-back mandatory challengers opt to head in a different direction.

Briedis previously held the WBC cruiserweight title which he lost to Oleksandr Usyk in 2018 during the inaugural World Boxing Super Season (WBSS) cruiserweight tournament.  He then claimed the WBO and IBF belts from Krzysztof Glowacki and Yuniel Dorticos, respectively, in the semifinal and final rounds of the second WBSS season.

The WBO reign lasted just six months, as he was stripped for failure to honor an ordered rematch versus Glowacki. He instead honored his commitment to the WBSS tournament, which completed with his September 2020 win over Dorticos to win the IBF title and reestablish championship lineage in the wake of Usyk’s move to heavyweight.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox