Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports.<\/a><\/p>\nGOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA – JUNE 08: Jai Opetaia of Australia during the IBF Cruiserweight Title bout against Claudio Squeo of Italy at Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre on June 08, 2025 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde\/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
A case of the Mexican pricing himself out of a fight?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the oldest trick in the book, right?\u201d Francis replied. \u201cTalk about how much you want to fight a guy, then demand some stupidly ridiculous number that just doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Ramirez) is hiding behind those numbers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what he\u2019s doing here.<\/p>\n
\u201cRamirez knows the money he\u2019s asking for doesn\u2019t exist for this particular fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s what is holding things up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhich is a shame because when it comes to the world\u2019s best cruiserweights, Jai Opetaia is number one. And there\u2019s nobody else in the division who matches him.<\/p>\n
\u201cZurdo Ramirez?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he survives more than six rounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking with The Daily Telegraph when his latest fight was announced, Opetaia claimed that, during his recent meeting with Turki Al-Sheikh in Las Vegas, the heavyweight promoter had reached out to Team Ramirez during their discussions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe actually reached out to Ramirez\u2019s team on the spot,\u201d the Aussie explained. \u201c[But Ramirez] needed some time to recover, so they said it\u2019ll be Badou Jack first, then \u2018Zurdo\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all been said, it\u2019s all been done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, the only reason these fights won\u2019t happen is if they\u2019re a bunch of pussies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the only reason. I\u2019ve done all the work, I\u2019ve sat down with Turki Alalshikh, he said he wants it to happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the only reason it won\u2019t happen is if they\u2019re scared to fight me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francis explained that rather than being a Riyadh Season event in Saudia Arabia, a Ramirez showdown would be staged by The Ring Magazine \u2013 with Los Angeles already being discussed between the parties as a likely host city.<\/p>\n
Kambosos called out for AUS superfight | 00:54<\/p>\n
But as for Turki Al-Sheikh now finding a suitable outcome?<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I know the figure being offered to Ramirez is right up there,\u201d Francis said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut The Ring is also a privately owned company. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo if fights don\u2019t make financial sense, they don\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut again, Jai is doing everything he can to make these fights because, for him, it\u2019s all about legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is determined to become undisputed.\u201d <\/p>\n
Back in June, Opetaia defended his world title within five devastating rounds on the Gold Coast, eventually stopping Italy\u2019s Claudio Squeo with a brutal right hook that dropped and broke the jaw of his rival.<\/p>\n
Only seven weeks later, Ramirez would also defend his WBO and WBA titles against Yuniel Dorticos on the undercard of what would be a Jake Paul win against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.<\/p>\n
Speaking after his own finish, Opetaia had said: \u201cNext fight, Zurdo Ramirez.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s get it on. I\u2019m chasing that belt, let\u2019s go.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not here to bad mouth him or beat him down.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the fight is easy to be made.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are ready. Whenever you call, we are ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe I\u2019m the best boxer in the cruiserweight division.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s make the fight happen. Anyone who thinks they\u2019re the best, they\u2019re not the best until they beat me. Anywhere, anytime, just pick up the phone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jai Opetaia\u2019s biggest world title rival has been accused of trying to price himself out of a unification…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-201440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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