{"id":355343,"date":"2023-12-23T20:29:52","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T21:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=355343"},"modified":"2023-12-23T22:02:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T22:02:04","slug":"aussies-ruthless-ko-sends-brit-into-the-shadow-realm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=355343","title":{"rendered":"Aussie's 'ruthless' KO sends Brit 'into the shadow realm'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian boxer<\/a> Jai Opetaia<\/a> took less than three minutes to reinforce his claim of being the best cruiserweight in the world, knocking out Ellis Zorro in Saudi Arabia on Sunday morning (AEDT).<\/p>\n

Opetaia \u2013 who this week was stripped of his title by the IBF for taking this fight<\/a> \u2013 delivered a devastating left hook that sent Zorro to the canvas in the dying seconds of the opening round.<\/p>\n

The International Boxing Federation (IBF)<\/a> wanted Opetaia to fight Mairis Briedis, who he beat in July 2022, but the Latvian is currently out of action with injury.<\/p>\n

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Since that fight, Opetaia has fought only once \u2013 defeating Jordan Thompson by TKO in September.<\/p>\n

He said he took some of the frustrations of being stripped of the title out on Zorro.<\/p>\n

\"Jai<\/p>\n

"I trained for 12 rounds, but if the knockout comes, it comes," Opetaia said.<\/p>\n

"I'm pumped, first round knockout, I'm ready for the next fight.<\/p>\n

"The last 18 months is all part of the journey. It's all built to where I am now and I'm excited for the next step.<\/p>\n

"These dudes put the people in front of me and I knock them out."<\/p>\n

The undefeated Sydneysider now carries a 24-0 record.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanCanobbio\/status\/1738615047067222242<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/MichaelBensonn\/status\/1738614674600456360<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/MikeCoppinger\/status\/1738614966045810791<\/a><\/p>\n

Zorro was also undefeated heading into the bout, but many suggested the fight was a mis-match. He looked completely overwhelmed in the 2min 56sec thrashing.<\/p>\n

Zorro crashed to the canvas, the bottom ring rope thankfully stopping his head from landing heavily on the canvas.<\/p>\n

There was some concern for the 31-year-old immediately after, but he eventually got back to his feet and was seen to by medics.<\/p>\n

"He was very hesitant, but he was a bit too hesitant and he got clipped," Opetaia said.<\/p>\n

"That's the way it goes."<\/p>\n

\"Jai<\/p>\n

Opetaia was offered a reported $661,00 (US$450,000) to fight Zorro on the Day of Reckoning card in Riyadh.<\/p>\n

His camp claims Briedis had pulled out of two potential rematches due to his injury, but has agreed in-principal to a date in early 2024.<\/p>\n

The IBF told him to pull out of the Zorro fight or be stripped of his cruiserweight title, but Opetaia said the money on offer was too tempting to refuse.<\/p>\n

Veteran English promoter Frank Warren\ufeff described the IBF's decision as "short sighted".<\/p>\n

Opetaia also had an appeal against the decision rejected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian boxer Jai Opetaia took less than three minutes to reinforce his claim of being the best cruiserweight in the world, knocking out Ellis Zorro […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":355345,"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\/355343"}],"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=355343"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":355348,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355343\/revisions\/355348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/355345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=355343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=355343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=355343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}