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"Take the fight": Opetaia calls out Ramirez after dodging dream unification bout
Sam Kosack • November 25th, 2025 7:10 pm
Jai Opetaia has opened up on his dream to become the undisputed Cruiserweight champion after Gilberto 'Zurdo' Ramirez again dodged a unification fight with the Aussie boxer.
Ramirez announced his next fight would be against David Benavidez, who is making the move from the light-heavy division to cruiserweight.
Ramirez presently holds the WBO and WBC cruiserweight titles, while Opetaia possesses The Ring and IBF belts, meaning a bout between the two would loom as a ‘winner-takes-all’ event for the division.
Opetaia’s next fight is against Huseyin Cinkara in a mandatory defence of the belts he first won eight years ago, but the 28-0 fighter revealed to SEN, he won’t make the shift to the heavyweight division until he has unified the cruiserweight division: a childhood goal of his.
“I've been pushing hard for the fight against Ramirez for a long time, but unfortunately it's taken this long, so we've just got to focus on our job and keep winning,” Opetaia told SEN 1170 Afternoons.
“I'm confident that these fights will eventually get over the line.
“I can only control what I can control, and we've been trying to get that fight over the line for quite some time, but I've got a job to do on the 6th of December in 2 weeks.
“Without taking care of business then, it all just becomes a fairy tale, so we have some work to do.
“I feel like we should be trying to progress and get better, and I feel like being undisputed in your division is the top. Only the greatest get to do that sort of stuff.
“There was (Oleksandr) Usyk who did it, and before that there was Evander Holyfield. These guys are legends in the sport, and I've been boxing my whole life since I was 8 years old, and I want to become someone like that.
“The purpose of being a boxer is winning world titles and unifying the division, and you want to get that done before you step up to heavyweight. That's the motivation right now, to stay at cruiserweight and get all this done.
“There's no rush for me. I know everyone in the boxing world keeps saying go to heavyweight, blah blah blah, but the heavyweight division isn't going anywhere.
“Once I go up to heavyweight, I'm not coming back down. This is an accomplishment and a goal of mine that I've had since I was a little boy and I know once you go to heavyweight, the process starts from scratch again.
“Until I've accomplished my dreams and done what I want to do, I just feel there's no pressure for me to do anything that I don't want to do.
“Obviously, we don't want to waste time at the same time, but there isn't a rush.
“I've just turned 30 years old; I've still got a lot of f---ing Ks in me and I've still got a lot of time to kick these goals.
“We're not in a rush, but at the same time, hurry up boys and take the fight.”
While a unification fight against Ramirez still shapes as the object of Opetaia’s goals and desires, he isn’t getting ahead of his defence bout against Huseyin Cinkara on December 6.
“(Cinkara) is dangerous. He's got nothing to lose and everything to gain here,” Opetaia said.
“You don't get one to mandatory (fight) on accident, it's obviously a lot of hard work… we're prepared for 12 hard rounds.
“We honestly don't look past fights. I'm only talking about other fights because I'm getting asked about them.”
