Jai Opetaia will be making what looks to be a temporary move up to heavyweight for a meeting against former champion Deontay Wilder on the undercard of Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua on December 11, and in anticipation of the fight Zuffa promoter Dana White says this could be Opataia’s chance to make himself a big name while competing on a big platform.
The card will stream live on Netflix, which will give Opetaia the kind of visibility he’s never had before. And as one of probably the biggest names
on Zuffa’s roster, White will surely be hoping for a performance that will garner additional interest.
“Imagine if on this Netflix card Opetaia knocks him out or wins this fight spectacularly, everything is open and available to Jai Opetaia,” promoter Dana White told Sky Sports.
“He’s one of these unique people who basically has an entire country behind him. He’s got Australia and New Zealand. The more he wins, the higher profile fights he has, the bigger he becomes, not just there but all over the world. Everybody knows who Jai Opetaia is now.”
Opetaia will be the one moving up in weight for this outing, but Wilder is hardly the biggest heavyweight out there and from a physicality standpoint, he should be pretty well suited for this kind of matchup. Wilder hasn’t shown the monstrous power in recent years that built his reputation as one of the biggest all-time punchers in the sport, and that certainly gives Opetaia’s team increased confidence about their chances to add a big name scalp to his resume.
