The promoter of former cruiserweight champion Mairis Briedis 28-2 (20) says the 38-year-old Latvian veteran will now target the vacant IBF title after Ring Magazine champion Jai Opetaia 23-0 (18) relinquished the red belt.
Australian southpaw Opetaia, 28, resigned as IBF champion yesterday after the New Jersey-based sanctioning body insisted he face Briedis in a rematch next. Briedis was reportedly unable to fight as he is still recovering from an undisclosed injury.
Opetaia was already scheduled to face Britain’s Ellis Zorro 17-0 (7) on the blockbuster ‘Day of Reckoning’ card at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Saturday night. The bout will still proceed with just the prestigious Ring Magazine title on the line.
Briedis lost the IBF title to Opetaia by unanimous decision in July last year. He was reportedly fine with the champion facing Zorro next, providing he got first shot at the winner.
Instead, it looks like he will face Mexican southpaw Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez 45-1 (30) next year for the vacant belt instead.
“Briedis will fight for the vacant title, most likely against Ramirez,” Briedis’s promoter Kalle Sauerland told ProBox TV. “If I am not mistaken he is next in the rankings, which is a blockbuster as well.
“Mairis really wanted to fight Opetaia again. If you look back at that fight, it is the tale of two cities. You have the first half where Opetaia breaks Briedis down on the back foot, breaks his nose.
“Then Briedis gets over his jet lag in the second half, smashing him, pulverises him from pillar to post. He carried him, if he took a step back he would have gone down for 20 not for 10. It was a fantastic fight, they left everything in that ring. I would have loved to have seen it again. In fact, a lot of people haven’t seen that fight.
“People say Mairis is old. Well, the old fella had the young fella in the second half of the fight, it wasn’t the other way around.
“That fight really needs to be made, whether it’s for a title in the future or for whatever it is, we want to do that fight again before it is too late.
“But Ramirez is fantastic as well, he’s a great fighter. I have an open account with him because he beat Arthur Abraham at super middleweight three or four years ago. It was one of Arthur’s last fights. We have to get some revenge there from our team. It is Mairis who is the man to do that.”
Sauerland denied talk that Briedis is injured and said he is in the gym right now.
“He is in training,” he added. “I think a lot of people are putting rumours out there that he is injured, this, that and the other. I think also because they saw a different opponent named and stuff like that, but he actually sent me a sparring video yesterday. He looks terrific, he is raring to go to get a fourth world title.”
