Jai Opetaia had arguably his sloppiest, least inspiring performance since emerging as a top cruiserweight a few years ago today against Huseyin Cinkara — and then came the finish.
Opetaia (29-0, 23 KO) scored an absolutely brutal knockout of Cinkara in the eighth round to retain his IBF cruiserweight title.
Cinkara (23-1, 19 KO) did rock Opetaia a bit in the second round, but it was a fleeting moment of hope. The 40-year-old Turkish-German fighter, who was the IBF’s mandatory challenger, gassed pretty hard, and was breathing heavy when Opetaia landed the left hand that scored the KO.
Otherwise, Opetaia was sloppier than usual, a fair bit less accurate, and wasted more energy than we’re used to seeing. But the results wound up the same, and he probably won every round other than the second, when Cinkara did have some legitimate success even aside from hurting Opetaia briefly.
Opetaia did admit the performance was not his best, saying, “I’m very disappointed in myself. I felt like I’ve let some people down with that performance. But Cinkara definitely came to fight. He boxed very well. And hopefully that bad performance brings some of these guys out to fight.”
“I felt like I just fought like shit, to be honest. It was a lot of mistakes and I’m fuckin’ so pissed off, but we got the win and we move forward.”
Asked about being hurt in the second, Opetaia didn’t do the usual boxer thing and deny what everyone saw. “To be honest, I felt like I needed it,” he said. “A bit of humble pie. Never get too big for your boots.”
He said again that he wants unification with “Zurdo” Ramirez or Badou Jack, who faces Noel Mikaelyan in a rematch next weekend.
