{"id":147034,"date":"2025-05-31T14:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T14:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147034\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T14:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T14:41:08","slug":"id-bash-him-for-a-couple-mil-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147034\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I’d Bash Him For A Couple Mil, Too’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even though Jai Opetaia<\/a> has Claudio Squeo to get out of the way on June 8, his sights are firmly set on securing a unification fight with Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez, who he admits can’t be blamed for choosing a potential Jake Paul fight instead.
Opetaia, The Ring and IBF cruiserweight champion, is one of the most destructive fighters in the world but has only faced top-tier opposition on two occasions against the same opponent in Mairis Briedis<\/a>.
He last fought at the beginning of January, knocking out David Nykia in four rounds<\/a> at the Gold Coast Exhibition Centre in Queensland, Australia. The finish was a brutal one, just as they were against Brit contenders Jordan Thompson, Ellis Zorro and Jack Massey, who Opetaia (27-0, 21 KOs) dispatched in a combined 11 rounds.
Ramirez<\/a> (47-1, 30 KOs), The Ring’s No. 1-rated cruiserweight, holds the WBA and WBO titles, which he is set to defend against former world champion Yuniel Dorticos on the undercard of Jake Paul-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr on June 28<\/a> at Honda Center in Anaheim, California.<\/p>\n

There are rumblings, however, that Paul (11-1, 7 KOs) could angle for a title shot in the near future. Ultimately, he would need a top-15 ranking with the WBA or WBO before securing such a shot, but Paul is adamant he’s ready for one now. Ramirez says he’s down for “whoever” once his business with Dorticos is over.<\/p>\n

Opetaia hopes that it’s him, but understands a fight with Paul would be a very attractive option for the Mexican.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“Who knows,” Opetaia says to The Ring<\/a> when he’s asked what it will take to get a deal with Ramirez over the line. “I feel like I’m the cruiserweight that generates the most money with [Ramirez], the biggest payday fight, but it’s a risk for him. I honestly believe if he wants to call himself the best cruiserweight in the world, he’s got to beat me first, and until he does that he’s not.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what he wants to do or what he’s trying to do … he’s chasing coin, you can’t knock him if he wants to fight Jake Paul for a huge lump sum of money, who’d turn that down? I’d bash Jake Paul for a [expletive] couple mil, too. So it is what it is.<\/p>\n

“I’m chasing unification fights. I just believe I am the best in the division and I believe if I just keep winning, the money’s going to come anyway, so I just need the fights to happen.”<\/p>\n

Opetaia’s promoter Eddie Hearn and his manager Mick Francis are two of the vital cogs who will seek out new opportunities and tougher foes for the Australian after his bout with Squeo<\/a> (17-0, 9 KOs) next week in Queensland.<\/p>\n

So far, however, matching their man with other champions has proved difficult despite Opetaia’s insistence that a fight with Ramirez, and becoming an undisputed champion, is top priority. <\/p>\n

“All the time [I tell them], yeah,” Opetaia adds. “They say ‘He doesn’t want to fight’, that’s their excuse for not putting the fight on, which, I don’t know, but I don’t even want to talk badly about someone. Genuinely, I’m not that guy, I don’t want to say [Ramirez] is a bad person or anything like that and I don’t believe he’s an easy fight either.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“I’m not saying I want to bash him or blow him out of the water, but I’m chasing unification fights. I’m chasing greatness. These undisputed fights are what every fighter should want. Every single fighter that is fighting on the world stage should want to be chasing undisputed. And if they’re not, then they’re [expletive] just wasting time.<\/p>\n

“They’re worried about holding one belt and just going ‘Oh, look at me, I’m a world champion’. No, that’s not me. I’m ready to fight for undisputed and keep winning, keep fighting the best and keep moving forward.”<\/p>\n

It’s hypothesised that if Opetaia fails to secure a unification fight at cruiserweight, a move to the heavyweight division could be an option. <\/p>\n

But Opetaia shakes his head and clearly remains hell-bent on staying the course at 200 pounds, where a fight with Ramirez, or WBC champion Badou Jack, remain the top two options.<\/p>\n

“I just feel like they can’t deny me for too much longer,” the 29-year-old says.<\/p>\n

“If I just keep winning and keep handling my business, it’ll come. I’ve got a goal in my head and I’m going to get it done. So let’s do it.”<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even though Jai Opetaia has Claudio Squeo to get out of the way on June 8, his sights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,10188,10181,10187,10186,10179,4496,10182,10183,10184,10185,10180,10193,10192,10175,10173,10174,10190,10176,10172,10194,10189,79,10191,10171,10178,16,15,10177],"class_list":{"0":"post-147034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-boxing-community","10":"tag-boxing-fights","11":"tag-boxing-history","12":"tag-boxing-interviews","13":"tag-boxing-magazine","14":"tag-boxing-news","15":"tag-boxing-photos","16":"tag-boxing-rankings","17":"tag-boxing-results","18":"tag-boxing-schedule","19":"tag-boxing-videos","20":"tag-disqualification","21":"tag-draw","22":"tag-fight","23":"tag-fighter","24":"tag-fighter-news","25":"tag-knockout","26":"tag-latest-boxing-matches","27":"tag-ring","28":"tag-ring-magazine","29":"tag-split-decision","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-technical-knockout","32":"tag-the-ring","33":"tag-top-fighters","34":"tag-uk","35":"tag-united-kingdom","36":"tag-upcoming-boxing-matches"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114602972563299578","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}