Jai Opetaia Prepares for Crucial Fight Against Noel Mikaelian

Jai Opetaia has dragged the heat, hurt and hard truths of a Phuket training camp into one of boxing’s brightest spotlights. On Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the unbeaten Australian cruiserweight steps in with Noel Mikaelian on the co-main event of the September 21 card headlined by Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn.

It is a fight loaded with risk and politics, and Opetaia knows both too well.

Phuket fire, Vegas stage

Opetaia spent a crucial stretch of his camp in Thailand, working in Phuket with his long-time, Phuket-based Irish trainer John Hutchinson, strength and conditioning coach Mark “Tap” Tapia, and his father, who also trains him. The days were brutal by design.

By 11am on Tapia’s first morning with the team, Opetaia had already finished his road run and was back in the gym for a second session. Training in the middle of the day in Thailand is a different kind of grind. The heat wraps around you. It slows the body, fogs the mind. The team wanted that.

“Boxing at a certain level, it’s all mental,” Tapia said. “For Jai, it’s all mental. Our goal is to push him there.”

That theme ran through the week. One session saw Opetaia complete 21 rounds on the pads – four rounds with each of three different pad holders. Hutchinson worked with him behind a power shield, forcing him to sit down on his punches. Tapia drove the conditioning. Opetaia’s father slowed things when he needed to, drilling technical corrections.

Elvis Opetaia, Jai’s younger brother, joined the camp and trained alongside him. The work came at a complicated point in Jai’s career, and everyone in the gym knew it.

A champion without a chair

Becoming undisputed cruiserweight champion has long been one of Opetaia’s main ambitions. The last year has made that dream feel both close and strangely out of reach.

In March, the IBF withdrew its sanction for his fight with Brandon Glanton when it became clear a newly created Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight title would also be on the line. Opetaia went ahead anyway and dominated Glanton over 21 minutes, winning comfortably on points. Then the IBF stripped him of their belt.

The WBC situation has only added another obstacle. The organisation had ordered Mikaelian to defend his cruiserweight title against David Benavidez in May. Instead, Mikaelian accepted the Opetaia fight. More than two months passed without Benavidez receiving a contract, according to Opetaia’s camp, and yet Opetaia’s own WBC status remains uncertain going into Saturday.

For Tapia, it all underlines how hard it can be to become undisputed, even when you keep winning.

“There’s so much politics in this,” he said. “We have no control. We just do our thing, fight whoever they put in front of us.”

Tapia admitted the strain of the past year had led him to a moment of doubt with his son.

“I even said to Jai, ‘Maybe we just let it go, son. Maybe we just leave it and go.’”

The answer came back quickly.

“‘Listen Dad,’ he said, ‘we won’t leave it like that just because of politics. Let’s finish what we started.’”

Mind over everything

Tapia sees his son’s mentality as one of his greatest weapons.

“You can have all the talent in the world,” he said. “But if your mindset doesn’t follow what your body’s doing, it’ll just fall apart. Your mindset is 95 percent of it.”

He reached for a simple image.

“It’s like having a nice-looking car with a bad engine in it. It looks good, but it won’t go anywhere. It won’t go anywhere.”

That line became the drumbeat of the Phuket camp. Long rounds. Short rests. Technical drills under fatigue. Every session was another attempt to harden the engine, not polish the paint.

Belts, respect and unfinished business

Losing the IBF belt outside the ring has not dulled what world titles mean to the family.

Asked whether recent events had changed how he views the belts, Tapia shook his head.

“No, not really,” he said. “That’s why we started. These belts hold weight. He’s been watching it since he was a kid. I’ve been watching it since I was a kid.”

Whatever the sanctioning bodies decide, the stakes feel real enough to them.

And one name looms over Opetaia’s future: David Benavidez.

During a strength and conditioning session in Phuket, Tapia pulled out his phone and showed Jai a video of Benavidez working a heavy bag. He believes a fight between his son and Benavidez could potentially happen next year.

“Yeah, 100 percent,” Tapia said. “If that fight happens, it’ll skyrocket us to the next level.”

The long-term plan, he explained, is to move up to heavyweight, chase unification there, and then look at the biggest names available.

“We’ll move up to heavyweight and then it’ll be for unification, I’m sure,” he said. “But we have unfinished business here first.”

Before any move to heavyweight, before any talk of Benavidez, Opetaia has Mikaelian in front of him.

No looking past Mikaelian

For all the future scenarios, Tapia stressed that the team refused to look beyond September 21.

“We don’t look over anyone,” he said. “Anyone we fight is dangerous.”

The approach is simple and stripped back.

“We go in with a plan, tick all the boxes. Mark does his job, the strength and conditioning coach. I do my boxing stuff. The athletes respect the sport, respect the athletes. They’re going through the same struggle, trying to feed their families. If anything, it’s all about respect.”

Everything else – belts, politics, names on posters – can wait.

“We concentrate on what we have to do,” Tapia said. “Then move on. Who’s next?”