There’s been a lot of smoke regaring a potential Deontay Wilder vs. Jai Opetaia fight on the undercard of the Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury mega card this December, but no fire yet. So where do the negotiations stand on this big potential co-main event?
Boxing insider Dan Rafael sat down with Big Fight Weekend to go over the clash, which would see WBA, The Ring, and Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight champ Opetaia move up to heavyweight to take on former WBC champ and knockout artist Wilder.
According to Rafael,
talks originally focused on Oleksandr Usyk fighting Wilder for his ‘last dance.’ But when Usyk refused to lower his price, the fight fell apart. That moved the conversation on to Wilder vs. Opetaia.
“The way [Wilder manager] Shelly Finkel explained it, he said, ‘Look, Usyk asked for more money than Turki [Alalshikh] or Zuffa was willing to pay.'”
“They’re sort of in that position right now where they’ve accepted an offer,” Rafael continued on Wilder facing Opetaia. “They don’t have paperwork. It’s not a signed contract. Opetaia is willing to fight him, which would entail him moving up to the heavyweight division at least for this one fight.”
Opetaia isn’t a lock, though, as Team Wilder also has WBA heavyweight champ Murat Gassiev in their crosshairs.
“Shelley admitted, all things being equal, Deontay would prefer to do the fight against Gassiev because of chance to fight for another world title,” Rafael said. “But he would certainly do the [Opetaia] fight.”
Now we just have to wait and see whether those in charge of the card are willing to lay out that much extra money to feature Deontay Wilder on the undercard of a huge event like Fury vs. Joshua. As Oleksandr Usyk is learning, the days of Saudis splashing cash are coming to an end, so we could see Wilder vs. Opetaia getting pushed to a later event. But what a show it would be if it was the co-main under Joshua vs. Fury.
