Jai Opetaia considered giving up boxing due to a long-standing hand injury

Jai Opetaia opened up on his long-standing hand injury that made him consider stepping away from boxing.

Jai Opetaia will face Claudi Squeo on Sunday 8th June, with both fighters aiming to uphold their unbeaten records.

Opetaia will defend his IFB world cruiserweight strap against Squeo, but things haven't always been as easy as it may seem for the Australian.

When speaking to The Ring, he opened up on injury struggles that led to him considering his future in the sport.

"I fought with a broken hand for five, six years. I would look at my hand and think 'I gotta fix this'.

“Me and my old man would be driving home from sparring, broke as anything, we just had nothing working for us, nothing working in our favour.

We actually had conversations about 'Should we give it up? Should I sign up to the local footy instead?'

- Jai Opetaia, The Ring

"I'd have time off and then come back and then time off, we were broke, we didn't have the money to get surgeries for our hands back then, so we just had to roll with it.

“So we stayed with it, we've been through so many make-or-break situations, even coming back from my broken jaw, it was broken on both sides and I was eating soups and noodles for four months. I was eating noodles and my jaw wasn't healing.”

It was a unanimous decision victory against Randall Rayment on 14th August 2015 that was the route of the injury problems for Opetaia. Despite walking away triumphant, he had allegedly broken his left hand during the fight, proving a lingering hurdle in his boxing career.

Despite that, he heads into Sunday's contest with a 27-0 record, and while the 29 year old is expected to get the job done with ease, Opetaia indicated that he’s not taking this fight lightly on route to his undisputed dream.

"I'm taking this fight very seriously. I train too hard and I prepare too well to slip up. I'm chasing undisputed, that's my goal, so none of it is possible if I lose."

Ellis Statham

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