Deontay Wilder against Jai Opetaia is being explored for the Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua undercard on December 11, and Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing is attaching its name to the idea.
The pieces landed in stages. Ring Magazine’s Mike Coppinger first reported that Wilder could appear on the card. Then a post from Inside The Ring claimed Opetaia is exploring a jump to heavyweight specifically to fight “The Bronze Bomber.” Zuffa Boxing didn’t put out a statement. It reposted the news as a collaborator on Inside The Ring’s Instagram post, which is about as loud as a promotion can get without signing anything, Bloody Elbow noted.
Why Zuffa wants a seat at this table
The timing is the interesting part. White has spent recent press conferences insisting he’s involved in Fury vs. Joshua no matter what anyone else says, and he’s gotten noticeably more agitated each time he repeats that he’ll be there to produce the event. Eddie Hearn has personally invited him, according to Bloody Elbow. Put Opetaia on the card and the argument about White’s role gets a lot simpler, because Zuffa would have its own fighter in the building either way.
Opetaia is the most valuable piece Zuffa can move here. He currently holds the Zuffa Boxing and Ring cruiserweight titles, and he’s talked before about going up to heavyweight at some point. That talk always sounded like a someday plan. After he signed with Zuffa, he was adamant he was still chasing undisputed status at cruiserweight, even as plenty of people doubted he could pull that off under the new banner. Then he got stripped of his IBF belt.
So there are two ways to read this. One, this card and this opponent are simply the right moment to cash in, and Opetaia is grabbing it. Two, the sanctioning body mess has made undisputed at cruiserweight a dead end, and heavyweight is where he goes next because the door behind him closed. Bloody Elbow floated both possibilities, and the truth might be a mix of the two.
Wilder, for his part, has been heavily linked to both Fury and Joshua throughout his career. Landing on the undercard of the fight between them would be a strange, fitting kind of full circle.
What’s next
Nothing is signed. “Being explored” is the operative phrase, and the headliner itself still has skeptics. A lot of fans won’t believe Fury and Joshua are actually sharing a ring until the walkouts start, given how long this saga has dragged on. That’s partly why the undercard has felt like an afterthought so far.
This fight would fix that in one booking. I’d rather watch a reigning cruiserweight champion bet his whole name on a move up against Wilder than sit through another stay-busy heavyweight mismatch on a mega card. Opetaia gets a shot at a name that sells tickets in any country. Zuffa gets a fighter on the biggest boxing card of the year. White gets to stop shouting at podiums about whether he’s invited. If it’s real, somebody needs to get it on paper before December 11 gets any closer.
