Viddal Riley has ruled out the prospect of an imminent fight with Jai Opetaia because of his determination to instead prioritise winning the IBF cruiserweight title.
It was on the undercard of Deontay Wilder-Derek Chisora that, over Mateusz Masternak, Riley recorded his most significant victory to be crowned the new European champion and also won an eliminator for the title of the IBF.
That Australia’s Opetaia, so recently stripped of that same title on account of contesting the lightly regarded one introduced by Zuffa Boxing for his fight with Brandon Glanton, remains highly ranked by the IBF makes it possible that they could yet be matched. However, the 28-year-old Riley’s desire to prioritise winning one of the recognised sanctioning body titles and to distance himself from the Zuffa route that undermined Opetaia means that Riley isn’t yet interested in fighting the cruiserweight he considers the finest in the world.
His fellow Briton Chris Billam-Smith so recently signing with Zuffa potentially makes him the likeliest next opponent for the 30-year-old Opetaia, but Riley regardless told BoxingScene: “I wouldn’t take the Opetaia fight next, ‘cause at the end of the day he made his Zuffa decision and what I grew up watching, and what I know, and what is prestigious to me, are the belts like the IBF, the WBC, [and] the WBA. If I’m in a position to go and win one of those belts that I dreamed about having as a kid, I’ll always pick that option first, over something new.
“That is everything, man. I like to really prove myself and go get it for myself. I like to have a clear path that I can stand on and say ‘I did that’. I know that if I never got in the ring again, I can always say I never wasted my time. I was a British and European champion, and I’m ranked top 10 with The Ring Magazine, and number two in the world with one of the governing bodies that Larry Holmes held the same belt. The IBF is the same belt that legends have held.
“There will be a time, maybe, when that decision will have to be made. But right now it’s not on my mind.
“They’d like me back out in September. That is all I know right now. But we’re in a good position. EBU gives you a high ranking with the WBC; it was an IBF world-title eliminator. We’ve got two governing bodies we’re in a good position with. We didn’t go to a convention and convince anyone to rank me higher. This is actually earned. That’s why I feel so confident in my position. I haven’t had any favours done for me.”
Should Riley succeed in winning either, he will have followed the traditional, but far from common, route of winning the English, British, European and world title in that order.
That it is little secret he would have been welcomed into Misfits Boxing is partly why he values the rewards that come with doing so. He also reflects similarly positively on being matched with the experienced Masternak, because of the extent to which he believes he will therefore improve.
“I always knew I was making the right decision,” he said. “I always knew it was the tougher decision [to favour professional boxing over Misfits]. I always knew that I could have more material things; more followers; all those things if I chose that path, but because I put so many years into creating who I am, it just felt wrong to throw that all down the drain, and for something I didn’t know would be sustainable.
“It’s easy now to be like ‘You could have done the crossover route’; I didn’t know there was a crossover route. I was the start of that new wave; I didn’t know if it was gonna last two years, three years, but one thing I knew is traditional boxing has always been here, so why would I invest in a side that can die out in a few years and waste all my talent?
“In the build-up it was quite irrelevant to me [that it became an IBF title eliminator]. I was focused on the opponent and I was focused on the EBU [title]. When I found out it was an IBF eliminator, it didn’t make a difference; I still had the same strategy to execute. If you start getting caught up on what’s getting added then you’re actually distracting yourself. ‘The mission’s the same guy – if you do that correctly you’ll reap the rewards of it being an eliminator’, and I think that worked out perfectly.
“It feels amazing just to know that not only did I win the European title, to be number two with the IBF – go through that process and being on the radar feels completely different to being dominant domestically. At any time you could get a call with your name on the other side.
“I felt the same way about [winning] the British – titles you seen on the TV all the time. To actually hold it in your hand and know that it belongs to you, it’s just a real feeling.
“[It was my] best performance and best win. As the level goes up, if you can continue to perform and make it look like it was the British level, you always have to say ‘That’s my best performance’. It’s a lot of effort to make it look that way. ‘You’re cruising.’ But he’s a veteran, man – there’s a lot of things in there that I had to be alert on to make it look that way. We saw that when he gave me a black eye.
“He didn’t rely on just athleticism. It was smarts, and fundamentals, and good teachings. For someone that still has the youth; athleticism; if I can lean into the fundamentals as much as someone his age, I’m gonna be even more effective.”
