Wilder vs Opetaia: 67 Combined Knockouts Set for Fury-Joshua Co-Main in Cardiff

Wilder vs Opetaia is now official, and it gives the Tyson Fury v Anthony Joshua night in Cardiff a second major attraction. Former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder will meet Australia’s unbeaten cruiserweight Jai Opetaia at the Principality Stadium on 11 December. Opetaia will make his heavyweight debut, and the card streams live worldwide on Netflix.

Why Wilder vs Opetaia matters

The appeal is in the contrast. Wilder, 41, is 45-4-1 with 43 knockouts and has spent his whole professional career at heavyweight. He is 6ft 7in and widely regarded as one of the most feared punchers of his era. Opetaia, 31, is 31-0 with 24 knockouts and has been the dominant force at cruiserweight, the 200lb division, since winning the IBF title against Mairis Briedis in 2022. The two men’s knockouts total 67, a figure Zuffa Boxing’s Dana White used on social media to sell the fight.

The BBC notes that Wilder is almost ten years older than his opponent. It also reports that the WBA “super” heavyweight title is on the line, though the other sources do not mention a belt.

Two careers at different points

Wilder held the WBC belt from 2015 to 2020 and made ten successful defences before losing it to Fury. Their trilogy ended with one draw and two defeats for the American. After a one-sided loss to Joseph Parker and a brutal knockout defeat to Zhilei Zhang in 2024, retirement looked likely. He has since won twice, against journeyman Tyrrell Anthony Herndon and then Derek Chisora, whom he beat by split decision in London in April.

Opetaia’s situation is more complicated. The BBC reports that his move to Zuffa Boxing has brought difficulties. He stopped WBC cruiserweight champion Noel Mikaelian in September but could not claim the belt because of a sanctioning dispute. After that win he faced off with David Benavidez, and a cruiserweight fight between them could still happen if the Mexican gets past Michal Cieslak in a three-belt unification bout. A win over Wilder would give Opetaia a heavyweight scalp and make him the first man to beat him. It would also do no harm to his bargaining position.

The bigger picture in Cardiff

The headline act is Fury (36-2-1) against Joshua (30-4). The fight was confirmed in September after years of failed negotiations. They came closest in 2021, when a US arbitrator ruled that Fury had to fight Wilder a third time, and the fight collapsed. Both men have since lost twice to Oleksandr Usyk, who relinquished his remaining world title belts in June but insists he has not retired. Fury has won twice since coming back, and Joshua has spent the year rebuilding after his 2024 knockout loss to Daniel Dubois.

The schedule is unusual. The undercard runs on Friday night, and the main-event ringwalks are expected in the early hours of Saturday 12 December. The BBC says around 01:00 GMT, while the Guardian cites reports of about 2am, and the stadium will stay open until 03:30. The timing is meant to suit a prime-time American audience on Netflix. The Guardian reports that the streamer’s preferred plan to stage the fight at Madison Square Garden fell through. The BBC says tickets for the main event sold out in under an hour.

The rest of the undercard has yet to be announced. The BBC says Welsh former IBF super-featherweight champion Joe Cordina is thought to be negotiating a fight with Manny Pacquiao.

For a co-main event, Wilder vs Opetaia carries real risk on both sides. Wilder’s power has ended fights in an instant throughout his career, and Opetaia has never lost. Something has to give in Cardiff.

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File photo: Deontay Wilder 2018 (cropped).jpg by Zach Catanzareti Photo, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.