Jai Opetaia retained his IBF and Ring Magazine cruiserweight titles with a dominant fifth-round stoppage of Italy’s Claudio Squeo on Australia’s Gold Coast.
The unbeaten 29-year-old floored Squeo with a body shot in the fourth before sealing victory with a vicious right hook in the fifth, extending his record to 28-0.
After the fight, Opetaia called out Mexico’s Gilberto Ramirez, the WBO and WBA champion, urging a long-awaited unification clash. “I’m chasing the belts. The fight is easy to make,” he said.
Meanwhile in Tokyo, Junto Nakatani added the IBF bantamweight title to his WBC belt after Ryosuke Nishida retired with an eye injury following six punishing rounds. Nakatani improved to 31-0, with 24 knockouts.
Three-weight champion Nakatani could now face fellow Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue in what would be the biggest fight in Japanese boxing history.
Inoue, 30-0 with 27 KOs, watched the bout from ringside, fueling speculation of a mega showdown in 2026.
