After weeks of will-they-won’t-they with half the heavyweight and cruiserweight rosters, Deontay Wilder is officially set to welcome Jai Opetaia to heavyweight on Netflix’s December 11th Tyson Fury vs Anthony Joshua show in Cardiff.
Having lost his IBF title, cruised past Brandon Glanton, and smoked Noel Mikaelian during his turbulent Zuffa tenure, Opetaia (31-0, 24 KO) now follows in the footsteps of former rival Mairis Briedis, taking a brief holiday up north before (hopefully) fighting the winner
of David Benavidez vs Michal Cieslak for most of the marbles. Unlike Briedis, who fought the indefatigable stud that is Mahmoud Charr, he meets a badly faded former titlist in Wilder (45-4-1, 43 KO), who gritted his way past Derek Chisora in April.
Wilder tends to hover around the 210s and 220s, so I don’t anticipate much of a size advantage for him, but he does still seem to have some pop and a goodly amount of fighting spirit left in the tank. Stranger things have happened, I suppose. We’ll let you know if the undercard continues to bulk up over the next month.
