Jai Opetaia returned to his homeland, and emphatically defended his IBF cruiserweight title with a fourth round knockout of David Nyika at Gold Coast Convention Centre in Queensland on Wednesday.
Opetaia (27-0, 21 KOs) came into this one on the back of several statement wins, and in his second spell as IBF champion, defending once this time around, a systematic sixth round stoppage of Jack Massey in October. Nyika (10-1, 9 KOs) enjoyed a decorated amateur career, with an Olympic Bronze medal and two Commonwealth Golds to his name, and had made swift progress as a pro, on the back of seven straight early wins.
Both fighters started on the attack, and in an explosive second round, Opetaia landed a huge left hand that buzzed the New Zealander, but the challenger responded with a left hook of his own that the home favourite seemed to feel.
The 29-year-old shook that scare off quickly, and began to assert control, with the conclusion not long in arriving.
A right hand decked Nyika heavily, and although he beat the count, he was unsteady, and a combination on the resumption having him out cold, and the contest was over.
Opetaia is now likely to target a unification with WBA and WBO cruiserweight champion, Gilberto Ramirez.
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Huni knocks out Potgeiter
On the undercard, Justis Huni further enhanced his credentials, defending his IBF Pan Pacific and WBO Global heavyweight titles with a second round stoppage of Shaun Potgieter.
Huni (12-0, 7 KOs) unleashed an attack that had Potgieter (10-2, 7 KOs) backpedalling to the corner, and he then let go of both hands before the referee made a wise intervention.
Remaining Undercard
Max McIntyre (7-0, 6 KOs) won the vacant IBF Youth super middleweight title, dropping Abdulselam Saman (8-2, 1 KOs) three times in the fourth round, before recording a stoppage win in the same session.
Ben Mahoney picked up the vacant IBF Pan Pacific super welterweight title, taking a points win over Fan Zhang (8-3-1, 5 KOs). Mahoney (15-0-1, 8 KOs) won all ten rounds on all three cards.
Highly-touted heavyweight Teremoana Jnr (6-0, 6 KOs) stayed perfect as a professional, needing under a round to dispatch Osasu Otobo (11-2-1, 5 KOs).
A meeting of unbeatens at super lightweight went the way of Shauna Browne (5-0, 3 KOs), as the Irishwoman took a split decision win over ten rounds against Taylah Gentzen (6-1, 3 KOs).
The sole eight rounder was at featherweight, where Tony Ingram (6-1, 3 KOs) lost his unbeaten record in a points loss to Runqi Zhou. The judges had Zhou (9-2-1, 3 KOs) a winner by two scores of 78-74, and a third score of 77-75.
In four rounders, light heavyweight prospect Billy McAllister (3-0, 3 KOs) scored another early win, this time in round two against Jordan Towns (2-3, 1 KO), and at middleweight, Kodi Shallali (1-1-1) and Albert Tu’ua (1-1-1) couldn’t be separated in a contest that ended in a majority draw.
In the battle of debutants at super featherweight, Jag Guthmann-Chester (1-0) came out on top on the scorecards against Jai Williams (0-1).
