Boxing Challenge: Opietaia Upsets Briedis

    In what can only be described as a bruising battle, Jai Opietaia survived a broken jaw and a furious late-round rally from Mairis Briedis to win a unanimous decision and take away the IBF cruiserweight championship in Broadbeach Australia.

Opietaia dominated the early rounds by outboxing Briedis from the outside and busted the aging champion up early, breaking his nose in the fourth round and winning six of the first seven rounds on my card.

But Briedis was far from finished as he began to break Opietaia down, breaking his jaw (which left him unable to speak after the bout) and badly hurting him in rounds ten and twelve to pull closer on the cards.

I saw some people on social media that thought the late-round stretch allowed Briedis to salvage a close win but my scorecard of 115-113 for Opietaia agreed with one official score with the remaining two tabbing Opietaia the winner at 116-112.

Briedis asked for a rematch, which I think he deserves after his late-round rally, and with the blood and guts action from the fight, it should be an easy sell especially if Briedis returns to Australia for the rematch.

A very good fight that is a notch below fight of the year level but a fight that will have no problem gaining interest for a potential second match between the two

In London, WBO number one heavyweight contender Joe Joyce lost the first two rounds to journeyman Christian Hammer but walked through the best hammers thrown to score a fourth-round knockout.

Joyce scored a knockdown in the third and two more in the fourth to pull the curtain down on the fight.

Hammer was a semi-late replacement and he gambled on taking Joyce out early because he didn't have the conditioning to go into the late rounds and he had success for two rounds.

Joe Joyce has a world-class chin and he can punch but I wonder what happens when he faces the best of the division.

Joyce takes a lot of punches and wings his shots a bit but he is going to come forward until his opponent stops him and even if you beat him, Joyce is going to make you pay for your victory.

In the other London fight, former junior bantamweight and bantamweight champion Zolani Tete scored a spectacular fourth-round KO of Jason Cunningham to perhaps placing his name in contention for a 122-pound title shot.

Tete knocked Cunningham down in the fourth and when the action resumed, landed a few punches that saw Cunningham go down and hit his head after falling which was quite scary.

Boxing Challenge

TRS: 118 Pts (3)

Ramon Malpica: 99 Pts (0)

Vince Samano: 96 Pts (3)