Jai Opetaia has spent the past few weeks in the heat of Phuket. On Saturday night, he walks into the glare of Las Vegas.
The unbeaten Australian cruiserweight faces Noel Mikaelian at T-Mobile Arena, stepping onto one of boxing’s grandest stages on the undercard of the September 21 show headlined by Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn. The setting is new. The mission is not.
Opetaia has chased the status of undisputed cruiserweight champion for years. Politics have turned that road into a maze, but the target has never moved.
His father and trainer, Tapu “Tap” Opetaia, admits the frustrations have bitten deep.
“I even said to Jai, ‘Maybe we just go and leave it, go,’” Tap told him. The reply came back hard and clear: “‘Listen Dad, we won’t leave it like that just because of politics. Let’s finish what we started.’”
That resolve has carried them through a turbulent year and into a punishing camp in Thailand.
Phuket heat, Phuket pressure
The work for Mikaelian did not begin in a Vegas gym under air conditioning. It started in the suffocating humidity of Phuket, where long-time Phuket-based Irish trainer John Hutchinson and strength and conditioning coach Mark “Matty” Mathie pushed Opetaia to uncomfortable places.
By 11am on Tap’s first morning at the new gym Hutchinson recently opened at Donegal Den, Jai had already completed his morning run and was back for a second session. Training in the middle of the day in Thailand is brutal. The team wanted exactly that.
“You get to a certain level in boxing where it’s all mental,” Mathie said. “For Jai, it’s all mental. Our goal is to push him.”
Tap sees the same thing.
“Your mindset is 95 per cent of it,” he said. “You can have all the talent in the world, be great at everything you’re doing, but if your mindset doesn’t follow what your body’s doing, it will just fall apart.
“It’s like having a nice-looking car with a bad engine in it. It looks good, but it won’t go anywhere. It won’t go anywhere.”
That theme ran through the camp. One session saw Opetaia complete 12 rounds on the pads, four with each of three different pad holders. Mathie drove the conditioning, Hutchinson worked the power shots, and Tap slowed things down to drill technical corrections. Opetaia was told to sit down on his punches, to feel the weight through every shot.
His younger brother Elvis joined the camp, training alongside him and adding another layer of family energy to the grind.
A champion without a belt
All this came during one of the most complicated stretches of Opetaia’s career.
In March, the IBF withdrew its sanction for his fight with Brandon Glanton once it became clear the newly created Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight title would also be contested. Opetaia went ahead anyway and dominated Glanton over 12 rounds, winning comfortably on points. He was later stripped of his IBF title.
The decision cut deep and created another obstacle in a division already snarled by sanctioning body politics. The WBC situation has only added to the mess.
In May, the organisation ordered Mikaelian to defend his WBC cruiserweight title against David Benavidez. Mikaelian instead accepted the fight with Opetaia, leaving Opetaia’s WBC status uncertain heading into Saturday night.
For Tap, the whole saga underlines how hard it can be to become “undisputed” even when a fighter keeps winning.
“There’s so much politics in this,” he said. “We have no control, so we just do our thing. We’ll fight anybody, whoever they put in front of us.”
Losing the IBF belt outside the ring has not dulled what world titles mean to the family.
Asked if recent events had changed how he views the belts, Tap shook his head.
“No, not really,” he said. “That’s why we started. These belts hold weight. He’s been watching it since he was a kid. I’ve been watching it since I was a kid.”
Benavidez in the distance, Mikaelian right in front
One name keeps circling around Opetaia’s future: David Benavidez.
During a strength and conditioning session in Phuket, Tap pulled out his phone and showed a video of Benavidez working the heavy bag. He believes a fight between his son and Benavidez could potentially happen next year.
“Yeah, 100 per cent, that fight will skyrocket us to the next level if it happens,” Tap said.
The plan, in his mind, is clear: unify, then move up.
“I’m sure it will be for the unification and then we’ll move up to heavyweight, because our plan is to go up to heavyweight. But we have unfinished business here.”
Before any of that, Mikaelian stands in front of Jai Opetaia. No heavyweight move, no Benavidez, no talk of undisputed means anything if he slips now.
For all the future talk during the week, Tap insists the team refused to look past September 21.
“We don’t look over anyone,” he said. “Anyone we fight is dangerous.
“We go with a plan, we tick all the boxes. Mark, the strength and conditioning coach, does his job. I do my boxing stuff.
“If anything, it’s all about respect. Respect the sport, respect the athletes. They’re going through the same struggle, trying to feed their families.
“Then move on. Who’s next? We just concentrate on what we have to do.”
