Opetaia staves off late Briedis rally to retain lineal cruiserweight title
Cacace stops Cordina for 130 belt; Kabayel KOs Sanchez in heavyweight eliminator; Itauma, Chamberlain get quick KOs; Safar pounds Kovalev
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Jai Opetaia opened a big lead over Mairis Briedis but then had to stave off his rally over the final few rounds in a unanimous decision victory in their rematch to retain the lineal cruiserweight title and win the vacant IBF belt he previously held on Saturday at sold-out Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Opetaia looked like he would cruise to victory and perhaps stop Briedis in the co-feature of the “Ring of Fire” pay-per-view card headlined by the Tyson Fury-Oleksandr Usyk undisputed heavyweight title fight, but Briedis showed enormous heart as he dealt with a broken nose to have big moments down the stretch as he also break Opetaia’s nose.
Ultimately, however, Opetaia won 117-111, 116-112 and 116-112 in his third defense since outpointing Briedis for the lineal and IBF titles in an all-out slugfest in their first battle in July 2022, a fight in which Opetaia suffered a badly broken jaw and was sidelined for 14 months.
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