Australian boxing star Jai Opetaia says he is 100 per cent healthy following surgery on his hand, saying his left hand “feels like a whole new hand”.
The 21-0 26-year-old is set to face Latvia’s Mairis Briedis for the IBF cruiserweight title later this year and is coming off surgery after fighting with a broken hand for seven years.
Having had his troublesome hand fully healed, the Gold Coast resident believes a new dimension to his fight game could be unlocked.
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“There’s no more pain or swelling or any injury in my left hand,” he told Wide World of Sports.
“It’s been about seven years since I had a left hand that’s 100 per cent, so it’s increasing everything.
“I’m training better and I feel like I’ll be able to get fitter and stronger sparring at a higher intensity.
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“For some fights, probably a week out I could barely fit my hand in my glove without it hurting, it was terrible. So just being able to stay 100 per cent focused on the fight and do anything training-wise is a different fight.”
Opetaia opened up on the incredible pain he’d tolerated throughout his career after first hurting his hand seven years ago. He believes the injury occurred during his third pro fight – a unanimous decision win over Randall Rayment in November 2015.
“I’ve been boxing since I was young and I’ve always had a bad left hand. It was probably my third pro fight that I really stuffed it – I fractured it in three different spots,” he said.
“Ever since then my hand was really delicate. If I hit it the wrong way it would just swell up for like a week and I’d have to spar with a swollen hand.
“There was something wrong with my cartilage, it was like all the cartilage was worn out between my bones.
“They’ve pinned all my bones together and it’s made one big bone in my hand, so there’s no more collisions.”
The Briedis bout presents a major opportunity for Opetaia to truly announce himself on the global stage. It is the first world title fight to be held in Australia since Jeff Horn retained the WBO welterweight title against Gary Corcoran in December 2017.
Horn initially won the title in a stunning unanimous decision win over Manny Pacquiao in July 2017, a fight Opetaia was ring-side at. He now wants to imitate the Brisbane native’s feat.
“It’s huge, especially when you compare it to Jeff Horn and Manny Pacquiao,” he said of the chance to have a world title fight in his home town.
“I watched that fight and it doesn’t even feel like five years ago, it was such a big event in Australia.
“To have my own event and be headlining and fighting for a world title, for people to look back and say, ‘When Jai won the world title’, that’s huge for me.
“That’s where it’s not about fighting for money and fame or anything like that, it’s about legacy as well, leaving a memory and an imprint on the boxing sport.”