Blood covers ringside commentary table during Jai Opetaia and Mairis Briedis fight as both men break their noses

Jai Opetaia and Mairis Briedis engaged in a blood-soaked battle on the Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk undercard.

The two men rematched in an IBF cruiserweight world title fight which caught fire late.

When they first met in July 2022, Opetaia picked up a unanimous decision victory and it was the same result again when they ran it back in Riyadh.

Last time out, Opetaia broke his jaw. Although it remained intact for their second fight, his nose did not and neither did Briedis’.

A cagey opener, saw Briedis very reluctant to let his hands go while Opetaia touched him up with the lead hand.

In the second round, the tempo upped with Opetaia dictating the pace from the outside as he darted in and out of range, landing crisp straight shots at will.

Plenty of feints from the Aussie southpaw kept Briedis guessing as a look of frustration began to show on the Latvian’s face.

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By round four, Opetaia was well in his rhythm although Briedis did find limited success when he roughed up his adversary on the inside.

It was a slightly more of a pedestrian pace than most had anticipated but it was hard not to appreciate the smart boxing from Opetaia.

In round six, a big left hand wobbled Briedis and appeared to break the 39 years old’s nose as blood began to pour.

But to his credit, he continued undeterred.

Boxing off the back foot, it was clear Briedis had some ring rust to shake off.

The sharpness of Opetaia proved to be too much for Briedis who was often caught falling short.

In round ten though, Briedis crept in an uppercut that stunned Opetaia at the end of the round.

Sensing he had his man hurt, Briedis came out throwing caution to the wind in the 11th as the action caught fire.

Sporting a broken nose of his own now, Opetaia looked in trouble for the first time in the fight with blood splattering all over the commentary desk.

“There is blood all over our table here,” said Todd Grisham on the DAZN comms.

Grisham’s co-commentator, Barry Jones, then added: “It splattered all over my head that blood.”

It wasn’t just the commentators and the two fighters that were soaked in blood.

The referee was also covered in claret after repeatedly wrestling the two men apart.

In the final frame, both men let their hands go with Briedis ending the fight strong.

However, it proved to be too little too late as the judges gave it to Opetaia with scorecards of 117-111, 116-112, 116-112 in his favour.

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