{"id":460329,"date":"2026-03-06T07:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T07:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/460329\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T07:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T07:45:10","slug":"jai-opetaia-rejects-oleksandr-usyk-fight-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/460329\/","title":{"rendered":"Jai Opetaia Rejects Oleksandr Usyk Fight Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxing247.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add East Side Boxing as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770669047_552_google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqKAgKIiJDQklTRXdnTWFnOEtEV0p2ZUdsdVp6STBOeTVqYjIwb0FBUAE?ceid=US:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow East Side Boxing on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Opetaia said he has been clear about that goal for several years and does not intend to change direction before completing it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUndisputed first. Once we become undisputed, we can think about something else. But I\u2019m chasing these belts like I\u2019ve said for a long, long time,\u201d Opetaia said.<\/p>\n<p>The Australian also dismissed the idea of publicly calling out Usyk while the Ukrainian champion continues competing at heavyweight and preparing for his own title defenses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like sitting here talking about him like I\u2019m trying to call him out just for clout is silly,\u201d Opetaia said. \u201cIt\u2019s unrealistic. Both of our pathways are heading in different directions right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Opetaia added that he views Usyk as one of the sport\u2019s elite fighters and does not see a reason to promote a fight that is unlikely in the immediate future. The cruiserweight champion said talk about a potential meeting often comes from outside speculation rather than realistic planning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI find it disrespectful,\u201d Opetaia said. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s silly to sit and try to disrespect one of the best fighters in the world right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Opetaia\u2019s next fight comes against American contender Brandon Glanton in Las Vegas, where he is expected to compete for the first Zuffa Boxing title as the new promotion begins organizing its boxing events.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old said he will remain focused on cruiserweight until he has collected the remaining titles in the division before considering a move to heavyweight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opetaia said he has been clear about that goal for several years and does not intend to change&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-460329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}