Mick Francis, manager for IBF cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia, is expecting fireworks at the official purse bid for the mandatory defense against unbeaten Richard Riakporhe.
Opetaia last fought over a year ago, when he shocked Mairis Briedis to capture the IBF title. Opetaia needed some recovery time after suffering a broken jaw during the fight.
He was then ordered to make a mandatory defense against Mateusz Masternak, but the Polish boxer withdrew from the contest. Once Masternak withdrew, Riakporhe was ordered in as the new mandatory.
“No one wants to fight Jai and that’s the problem – they know they’re going to get beat,” Francis told AAP.
“It doesn’t matter if they fight on the Gold Coast, the UK or on the moon. He’s the baddest cruiserweight we’ve seen and we’ve never had anyone genuinely call out Jai, ever.”
Opetaia recently signed a promotional deal with Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing.
Hearn, who has an exclusive content deal with steaming service DAZN, wants to stage Opetaia’s next fight Australia, with heavyweight prospect Justis Huni being featured on the undercard.
On the other hand, Riakporhe is promoted by Ben Shalom of Boxxer, who have a content deal with Sky Sports. Shalom will certainly want to stage the fight in the UK.
“You’ve got two of the biggest boxing powerhouses in the UK going at it now, plenty of pride on the line there to get this fight,” Francis said.
“Eddie has made it clear he wants to do it in Australia and put Justis on the undercard. He’s got (Toowoomba product) Stevie Spark at Matchroom too, Conor Wallace …. we could put on a massive, high-quality card and I know Gold Coast wants to be the boxing capital of Australia.”
The two sides have until August 8 to reach an agreement, or a purse bid will be held.