A steely Jai Opetaia kept a straight face as Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn sparked chaos ahead of their respective Las Vegas world title fights.
Unbeaten Australian cruiserweight Opetaia will fight WBC champion Noel Mikaelian at T-Mobile Arena, while Garcia will defend his WBC welterweight title against Benn in a star-studded main event on Sunday (AEST).
Opetaia (30-0) was reduced to spectator at their joint press conference at the 20,000-seat venue on Friday that began with Garcia eating from a bag full of hard-boiled eggs.
Benn entered wearing a bullet-proof vest and fellow welterweight world champion Teofimo Lopez, disguised in a wig and fake beard, asked questions from the crowd.
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Garcia and Benn had earlier launched into a feverish back-and-forth that almost derailed the press conference.
"Honoured to be here and sorry I'm not as entertaining as these guys," Opetaia offered when he finally had a chance to speak.
"Boiled eggs, bullet-proof vests and disguises ... I'm here to defend my world title. This means a lot to me.
"I'm here to fight, representing my culture, my team, and to get a job done.
"I've been flying this flag for a long, long time and stay tuned, cause the journey is not over."
Opetaia carried his Ring and Zuffa title belts onto the stage while Mikaelian clung to the WBC strap he'll likely surrender when the bell rings.
Rebel organisation Zuffa isn't recognised by boxing's four major bodies, but the German-Armenian was keen to face Opetaia after negotiations to defend his belt in a unification clash with David Benevidez went nowhere.
Opetaia, first crowned a world champion four years ago, was forced to relinquish his IBF belt for the second time when he debuted for Zuffa earlier this year.
He's had eight fights since and always called out his fellow belt-holders, but incredibly - and ironically, given Mikaelian will likely lose the belt for fighting him - this will be his first fight against a current cruiserweight world champion.
Mikaelian has suffered similarly but, in another ironic twist, knows a date with Benavidez, potentially for undisputed status, awaits the winner.
"It's two world champions colliding and a 50-50 fight," the 28-3 fighter said.
"If you follow my career, I was robbed for that title 2018 against (Mairis) Briedis, then won it, then had it stripped, robbed for it again, won it back.
"It's a roller coaster so if they have to strip me, they have to strip me. They can do whatever they want."
Opetaia, crowned Zuffa's first world champion after beating Brandon Glanton in March, is chasing the IBF in the courts in an attempt to win that belt back.
But he is at peace with his move to Dana White's disrupter league, happy to be on the big stage fighting the division's best.
"Being the best in the world and being undisputed is two different things," he said.
"I'd like to carry all the belts at once; it's unfortunate that these things happen to us but we don't kick and scream, we know the path we picked and what we have to do."
Australian Associated Press
