Jai Opetaia to defend cruiserweight belt against Claudio Squeo
IBF cruiserweight titleholder Jai Opetaia will get his second straight title defense in his home country of Australia.
The 29-year-old Opetaia will face Italy’s unbeaten Claudio Squeo on May 13 at Gold Coast Convention Centre in Broadbeach, Queensland, it was announced Thursday on the DAZN stream of the George Kambosos-Jake Wyllie weigh-in.
The fight – which will be the sixth title defense for Opetaia – will take place about an hour’s drive from his hometown of Brisbane, Australia.
Opetaia admits the fight with Squeo – a 34-year-old who is fighting outside of Italy for the first time – is a “tune-up fight” but says he isn’t overlooking his opponent, who carries a 17-0 (9 KOs) record.
“He’s a little bomber, he’s a 5ft 10in, comes forward. He’s nothing special, nothing I ain’t seen before,” said Opetaia, 27-0 (21 KOs). “It’s another day in the office.”
Still, it’s clear that Opetaia would rather be facing someone else – and that person is WBO/WBA cruiserweight titleholder Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez.
“To be honest, it’s a bit frustrating,” said Opetaia. “I’ve been chasing these unifications.
“I’ve been chasing this Zurdo fight, and still it hasn’t come. I don’t know why. It’s bullshit; the best should be fighting the best. I’ve got two belts, he’s got two belts, we’ve been trying to push for this fight and it just doesn’t make sense for me why this isn’t getting over the line. The only reason would be he’s ducking. We’re really pushing for these unification fights, but I can only do so much.”
Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn, who co-promotes Opetaia alongside Tasman Fighters, says he had a call two weeks ago with Ramirez’s promoter, Golden Boy Promotions, plus Riyadh Season head Turki Alalshikh, who indicate that Ramirez has a mandatory title defense set for June 28 against Yuniel Dorticos. Hearn says he believes an Opetaia-Ramirez unification fight can be made in Saudi Arabia in September or October.
“We know the big fights are coming, the Zurdos, and the plan is to become undisputed and unify,” Hearn said. “But this guy wants to stay busy. I really want him to fight frequently this year.
“We want the Zurdo Ramirez fight, but also [WBC cruiserweight titleholder] Badou Jack is fighting [mandatory challenger Ryan] Rozicki coming up soon as well. We’ve got to get all those belts before – maybe – the eventual move up to the big boys.”
The Squeo fight will be the fourth in the past 12 months for the 29-year-old southpaw Opetaia, who was last in the ring in January knocking out David Nyika in four rounds.
Squeo, the No. 14 contender with the IBF at 200lbs, is coming off a second-round stoppage of Orlando de Jesus Estrada last October in a six-round fight, and will be fighting in his first scheduled 12-rounder.
