IT IS 11 years and about two months since Jai Opetaia’s last visit to London, when defeat, vomit and a hangover for the ages punctuated the trip.
Back then he was the child prodigy of the boxing at London 2012. If Billy Joe Saunders had been that four years earlier in Beijing, it was Opetaia’s turn in England’s capital.
He was just 16 years old when he qualified for the Games and became Australia’s youngest ever senior champion. He turned 17 a few weeks before arriving at the athletes’ village and then drawing world No.1 Teymur Mammadov in the last 16.
It was 9-9 as they headed into the final roundm but Mammadov scraped through 12-11 and sent Opetaia home. But he did not get straight on the plane back Down Under and instead ticked something else off the list.
“That was the first time I ever had a beer with
