{"id":19655,"date":"2023-10-02T16:06:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-02T03:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/talamua.com\/?p=19655"},"modified":"2023-10-02T16:08:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T03:08:09","slug":"jai-opetaia-retains-ibf-and-the-ring-titles-after-4th-round-knock-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/talamua.com\/?p=19655","title":{"rendered":"Jai Opetaia retains IBF and The Ring titles after 4th round KO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Original Article by Simon Smale<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jai Opetaia knocked out Jordan Thompson early in the fourth round at Wembley Arena in the weekend.<\/li>\n<li>Opetaia who received a message of well wishes from Samoa\u2019s Minister of Sports before the fight, has moved to 23-0 with 18KOs, while Thompson\u00a0falls to 15-1.<\/li>\n<li>The height difference was painfully obvious as the fighters touched gloves pre-fight, the 198cm Thompson towering over a crouching and swaying Opetaia.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Opetaia who received a message of well wishes from Samoa\u2019s Minister of Sports before the fight, has moved to 23-0 with 18KOs, while Thompson falls to 15-1.<\/p>\n<p>The disparity in ringcraft was just as clear though, with Opetaia&#8217;s superior skill level allowing him to dominate.<\/p>\n<p>Opetaia used his straight left to good effect early in the first round, darting in to pick off single shots to head and body.<\/p>\n<p>Then, a powerful right rocked the giant British fighter to send him staggering back into his own corner.<\/p>\n<p>Opetaia launched a sustained attack, pummelling Thompson against the ropes, only for the bell to save the 30-year-old Englishman.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19657\" style=\"width: 872px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-19657\" class=\"wp-image-19657 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/talamua.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Opetaia-knocks-Thompson-down.jpg?resize=740%2C416&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Opetaia knocks Thompson down\" width=\"740\" height=\"416\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/talamua.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Opetaia-knocks-Thompson-down.jpg?w=862&amp;ssl=1 862w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/talamua.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Opetaia-knocks-Thompson-down.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/talamua.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Opetaia-knocks-Thompson-down.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-19657\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thompson is down at the fourth round to end the fight.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The defending champion bamboozled Thompson by switching from southpaw to orthodox, moving in and out of range during the second, but really stepped up the pace in the third.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I felt like this was Jordan Thompson&#8217;s fight night. I feel like they made it about him. It was nothing to do with me,&#8221; Opetaia said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They put me in this small ring thinking they were gunna cut me off, but that&#8217;s what happens.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got good feet and they tried to take that away from me with this little ring.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But you know, I&#8217;ve got the power too.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I told them at the start they were underestimating my power and that&#8217;s what happens.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Thompson, a former youth tennis star who made a late transition to boxing,\u00a0landed a solid shot at the beginning of the third, but Opetaia responded in kind, bludgeoning the Englishman to the canvas with over two minutes remaining in the round.<\/p>\n<p>Opetaia was able to land shots at will in the third, with the 30-year-old barely able to defend himself.<\/p>\n<p>Another brutal left send Thompson back against the ropes, the bell again saving Thompson.<\/p>\n<p>The emphatic win sees Opetaia\u00a0in complete control of the cruiserweight division.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s the best cruiserweight in the world,&#8221; former WBC cruiserweight champion Tony Bellew said on DAZN post-fight.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s come here tonight and he didn&#8217;t even care about Jordan Thompson&#8217;s size. He put it on him. He took him apart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Original Article by Simon Smale Jai Opetaia knocked out Jordan Thompson early in the fourth round at Wembley Arena in the weekend. Opetaia who received a message of well wishes from Samoa\u2019s Minister of Sports before the fight, has moved to 23-0 with 18KOs, while Thompson\u00a0falls to 15-1. The height difference was painfully obvious as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,3092,3093],"class_list":["post-19655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-featured","tag-jai-opetaia-knocks-our-thompson","tag-retains-the-crusierweight-titles"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jai Opetaia retains IBF and The Ring titles after 4th round KO - Talamua Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/talamua.com\/?p=19655\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jai Opetaia retains IBF and The Ring titles after 4th round KO - Talamua Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Original Article by Simon Smale Jai Opetaia knocked out Jordan Thompson early in the fourth round at Wembley Arena in the weekend. 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