Jai Opetaia-Huseyin Cinkara: IBF Orders Mandatory Cruiserweight Title Defense
Jai Opetaia’s name was floated as an attractive potential option to the winner of an upcoming cruiserweight title unification bout.
Steps will have to be taken if he prefers that more attractive option than the one now on his plate.
The Ring has confirmed that Sydney’s Opetaia was instructed to next defend his IBF cruiserweight title versus Huseyin Cinkara. The two sides were ordered by the sanctioning body to enter negotiations for their mandatory title fight.
Opetaia (26-0, 20 knockouts) is The Ring champion and IBF titleholder. He has yet to make a mandatory defense from either of his two alphabet title reigns. In fact, his failure to honor a prior order forced him to be stripped of the belt last December.
Cinkara (22-0, 18 KOs) is unheralded but followed the proper steps to earn his No. 1 ranking. The 39-year-old from Istanbul, Turkey via Speyer, Germany defeated Armend Xhoxhaj (18-4, 9 KOs) via second-round knockout in their April 24 IBF title eliminator. With the win, Cinkara was named the No. 1 contender.
Opetaia regained the belt three weeks later in a repeat victory over former three-time titlist Mairis Briedis (28-3, 20 KOs) on May 18 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Their bout was a sequel to Opetaia’s thrilling July 2022 victory to lift The Ring championship and IBF belt from Briedis.
The first win came at a heavy price. Opetaia suffered a broken jaw and also underwent surgery for an unrelated shoulder injury. All told, it left him out of the ring for 14 months. He’s since crammed in four RING championship title defenses in a span of just 54 weeks.
However, his decision to face unranked Ellis Zorro last December rather than Briedis—his mandatory challenger at the time—resulted in the end of his IBF reign.
The bout was his first of three straight on the Riyadh Season circuit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Opetaia’s second appearance in boxing’s latest hotbed was his rematch versus Briedis. They were scheduled to meet in February under the originally scheduled Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury undisputed heavyweight championship. The entire show was postponed by three months when Fury (34-1-1, 24 KOs) suffered a cut in sparring and was forced to delay the anticipated clash.
Their second act also went the distance, with Opetaia taking a well-earned decision in their vacant title fight.
Opetaia since defended his championship in an Oct. 12 sixth-round knockout of Jack Massey on the Artur Beterbiev-Dmitrii Bivol undercard.
The ordered mandatory fight comes just four weeks out from the Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez-Chris Billam Smith WBA/WBO unification bout in Riyadh. It was loosely rumored that the winner would be poised to further unify versus Opetaia.
However, there remains plenty of work to be done to arrive at that destination.
