The Australian defeated ex-rival Usik in a bloody fight for the second time in his career.
Australian Jay Opetaya (25-0, 19 KOs) defeated the representative of Latvia Mairis Briedis (28-3, 20 KOs) in a fight for the vacant IBF world heavyweight title.
The Opetai – Briedis fight took place at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), on the undercard of the unification fight for the title of absolute world heavyweight champion between Alexander Usik And Tyson Fury.
Opetaya took the initiative in the early rounds and also performed better in the middle of the fight. In the championship rounds, 39-year-old Briedis began to act more actively, but despite all his efforts he failed to achieve an early victory. The judges’ count unanimously gave the victory to the Australian – 117-111, 116-112 and 116-112.
This was the second fight between Opetai and Briedis. In July 2022, Jay defeated Myris by unanimous decision to win the IBF cruiserweight belt. At the end of 2023, the Australian vacated the championship title for the fight with Ellis Zorro in Saudi Arabia on December 23, which brought him a fee of 450 thousand dollars.
Briedis suffered the third defeat of his career. In January 2018, Mairis lost to Usik by majority decision in a fight for the WBO and WBC cruiserweight titles.
Earlier, as part of a grand boxing evening in Saudi Arabia, Ukrainian Daniel Lapin knocked out Portuguese Octavio Pudivitra in the first round, winning the WBA Continental championship belt.
Former world light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev lost to Swedish boxer Robin Safar by unanimous decision. Moses Itauma (9-0, 7 KOs) defeated Ilya Mezentsev by technical knockout and won the vacant WBO Intercontinental heavyweight belt.
German Agit Kabayel won by technical knockout over Cuban Frank Sanchez and won the status of mandatory challenger for the WBC heavyweight title. Anthony Cacace also defeated Joe Cordina in a super featherweight unification bout.
The unification fight between Usik and Fury will begin approximately after midnight. The referee in the ring will be Mark Nelson, and the boxers’ actions in rounds will be counted by Manuel Oliver Palermo from Spain, Craig Metcalf from Canada and Mike Fitzgerald from Jacksonville, USA.
Source: Sportarena
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