Jai Opetaia calls out fellow cruiserweight stars as he continues undisputed bid

Jai Opetaia wants all the smoke

Since the departure of Oleksandr Usyk, Jai Opetaia (28-0, 22 KO’s) has been the cruiserweight division's long-time leader.

He may never have laid claim to all the belts, but the Australian is widely considered to be the most dangerous man the division has to offer.

As the best, it's only expected that some fighters will try to avoid a showdown against you. But for Opetaia, this isn’t an option; he dreams of one day unifying the cruiserweight titles - crowning himself as undisputed champion of the division.

To do this, he has to fight the very best. However, speaking to Boxing News , he shockingly accused some of the division's biggest names of avoiding a showdown against the 30-year-old.

“That’s the only reason I want to fight him (Billam-Smith), he’s got nothing I want and even when he had the belt, the fight was easy to make, he dodged me,” Opetaia claimed.

“He took the easy way, he thought he was going to beat Zurdo (Ramirez). He wanted to generate more money before he lost to me.

“He’s a respectable fighter (Billam-Smith), I believe he’s a great fighter, and I believe the way I beat him and when I do beat him, they’ll be like f*ck this guy’s good, and it’ll just uplift the fight even more.”

After airing out Billam-Smith , Opetaia still wasn't finished. He went on to claim that ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez is being unreasonable with purse requests, in order to deliberately price himself out of a fight with the hard-hitting cruiserweight phenom.

“They said he’s asking for stupid numbers, all I know is they’re just using excuses not to take the fight.”

Opetaia is next set to defend his IBF strap against fellow undefeated star, Huseyin Cinkara (23-0, 19 KO’s). The fight was originally scheduled for January 8, but has since been delayed due to an injury in the Cinkara camp.