Jai Opetaia never worried about the short lead-in to adjust to a much taller challenger to his throne.

The Ring and IBF cruiserweight championship remained with the unbeaten Sydney native after a fourth-round knockout of New Zealand's David Nyika. A pair of knockdowns forced the stoppage at 2:!7 of round four in their DAZN main event Wednesday evening at Gold Coast Convention Centre in Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia.

Opetaia (27-0, 23 KOs) originally prepared to face IBF mandatory challenger Huseyin Cinkara (22-0, 18 KOs), who suffered a training camp injury and is now out through early summer. Niyka (10-1, 9 KOs) answered the call in mid-December, as he was already set to appear on the undercard.

The new matchup represented a rare and significant height disadvantage for the 6'2" Opetaia in facing a 6'6" challenger. Nyika is three inches taller than Cinkara, boasted the much deeper amateur resume and—on paper—posed a different kind of threat.

On paper, anyway.

"All that style sh-- went out the window," Opetaia noted during his post-fight interview. "That was a dogfight. He came for this championship. He came to win."

Action was free-flowing early and often. Opetaia almost always landed the more telling blows, including several booming left hands out of his natural southpaw stance in the first and second rounds.

Both fighters wisely clinched when necessary but Nyika never shied from trading with the defending champion. Opetaia was briefly stunned by a combination late in the second, shortly after he landed his own power shots.

The clock rapidly approached midnight on Nyika's Cinderella story, however. Opetaia took full control in the third and never looked back.

Nyika was bloodied by Opetaia's left hand upstairs. Opetaia then landed two uppercuts roughly ten seconds apart. The latter sent Nyika to the canvas for the first time in his career.

Opetaia was calm as he prepared to close the show. A right hook rocked Nyika, who was then drilled by a swarm of power shots before two more right hooks and a final left hand put him flat on the mat. Referee David Fields immediately halted the contest and signaled for immediate medical attention.

Nyika remained on the canvas for several minutes—down for a bit and then sat upright—before he made it to his feet and eventually out of the ring. The crowd responded with a hero's salute, as did his conqueror.

"He took the fight on three weeks' notice. He gave me a dogfight and I respect that," noted Opetaia. "We slugged it out and I respect that. I take my hat off to David."

Opetaia made the fifth defense of The Ring championship he has held since his July 2022 thriller over Mairis Briedis (28-3, 20 KOs) at this very venue. The previous four defenses all came on the road—one in England, three in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia—before he returned home.

Among that batch of wins was a repeat unanimous decision over Briedis last May 18, to regain the vacant IBF title.

With the win over Nyika satisfying his mandatory defense obligation with the IBF, Opetaia is now free to face anyone of his choosing for his next outing. His sights are immediately set at the top of the rest of the division—namely unified WBA/WBO cruiserweight titlist Gilberto 'Zurdo' Ramirez (47-1, 30 KOs), The Ring No. 1 cruiserweight contender.

"Ramirez, I'm coming for the belts. We're coming for the rest of the belts," vowed Opetaia. "I've been waiting for these fights for a long time. I want these unification bouts, I'm coming for those belts."