{"id":346857,"date":"2023-11-15T23:13:01","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T00:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=346857"},"modified":"2023-11-16T02:01:46","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T02:01:46","slug":"aussie-joins-joshua-wilder-on-blockbuster-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=346857","title":{"rendered":"Aussie joins Joshua, Wilder on blockbuster card"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian world champion Jai Opetaia<\/a> will feature alongside heavyweight megastars Anthony Joshua<\/a> and Deontay Wilder<\/a> on a fight card to be held in Saudi Arabia on December 24 (AEDT).<\/p>\n

Opetaia will defend his IBF and The Ring Magazine cruiserweight belts against undefeated British fighter Ellis Zorra, with the pair facing off for the first time at the official press conference in London overnight.<\/p>\n

The No.1 cruiserweight won his first defence in the UK last month, defeating Jordan Thompson via fourth round stoppage, to take his record to 23-0, since \ufeffthe 28-year-old claimed the world title with a memorable win over Mairis Briedis last year.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> India books World Cup final spot by beating Black Caps\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Kohli breaks Sachin Tendulkar's ODI record with ton\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Axed Wallabies captain makes shock code switch\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"We had more seating and people at it than some fight nights I've been to," Opetaia said of Thursday morning's press conference.<\/p>\n

"We came here to make a statement (against Thompson), wanted to do some damage.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"This one, we want to take our time … the damage will come."<\/p>\n

Former two-time world heavyweight champ Joshua will face Otto Wallin of Sweden with Wilder scheduled to fight former champion Joseph Parker.<\/p>\n

The date was initially set for an undisputed heavyweight showdown between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk but that bout was postponed after Fury barely beat Francis Ngannou last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old Joshua last fought in August when the Briton beat Finland's Robert Helenius in a seventh-round stoppage at the O2 Arena in London.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Joshua and Wilder \u2014 both looking for another title shot \u2014 could fight each other next if they win in Saudi Arabia. Fury and Usyk are expected to fight in early 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t predict the future, but I know what I want to do,\u201d Joshua said at the press conference. \u201cI believe I\u2019m going to be a three-time heavyweight champion and the first step is to put a demolition job on Otto Wallin.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old Wallin's only loss was to Fury in a 12-round unanimous decision in 2019.<\/p>\n

Joshua lost his WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight belts to Usyk in 2021 and was defeated in their rematch last year.<\/p>\n

– with AP\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian world champion Jai Opetaia will feature alongside heavyweight megastars Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder on a fight card to be held in Saudi Arabia […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":346862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=346857"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346868,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346857\/revisions\/346868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/346862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=346857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=346857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=346857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}