Deontay Wilder has accepted an offer to fight Jai Opetaia, reportedly as the co-feature to Tyson Fury against Anthony Joshua on December 11 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. His manager Shelly Finkel told Dan Rafael they have “accepted offer for Wilder to face Jai Opetaia” and are “awaiting word if it’s a go.”
It is not signed. It should not be.
Look at What Each Man Brings
Wilder is 40 and turns 41 on October 22. He is 45-4-1 with 43 knockouts, which remains one of the most absurd knockout rates in heavyweight history. His most recent outing was a 12-round split-decision win over Derek Chisora on April 4 at The O2, in which he put Chisora down twice.
Opetaia is 31, Australian, born in Sydney to a Samoan father, and 31-0 with 24 knockouts. He has been The Ring cruiserweight champion since July 2022, became the inaugural Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight champion on March 8, 2026 and took the WBA regular cruiserweight title on September 12 by stopping Noel Mikaelian in the ninth round. He was stripped of the IBF belt on March 23.
So this is an unbeaten prime cruiserweight champion moving up to heavyweight against a man whose right hand still ends fights and whose chin no longer reliably takes one.
The Risk Is Wrong on Both Sides
For Opetaia it is the worse deal. He holds three cruiserweight belts, he has never lost, and he reportedly has a verbal agreement to fight David Benavidez around Cinco de Mayo weekend in 2027. Taking a heavyweight fight against the division’s hardest puncher before that is volunteering to have your whole career rewritten by one punch you cannot see.
For Wilder it is simpler but no kinder. A 41-year-old heavyweight being matched against a younger, faster, undefeated champion on the biggest British card of the decade is being positioned as a name on a resume. He has been in that spot before and he knows exactly what it is.
It Would Be a Hell of a Fight, Which Is the Problem
Nobody is arguing it would be boring. A fighter with 43 knockouts against a fighter with 24 who has never been beaten is the kind of matchup that sells a stadium without any help from the main event.
That is precisely how boxing keeps talking good fighters into fights nobody around them would recommend. The sport rewards the version of this where somebody gets badly hurt, and it rewards it with the same purse it would have paid for a safe night.
What Is Actually Confirmed
Very little. Finkel’s own words are that they are awaiting word, so the bout is not official. The December 11 date and the Cardiff venue for Fury against Joshua rest on a single report; Joshua’s own public record still shows no officially confirmed date or venue, and current records for both Fury and Joshua have not been updated in the public databases. Wilder has also been linked to WBA heavyweight champion Murat Gassiev. No purses have been reported.
If it happens, it will be must-watch. That is not the same as it being a good idea.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
