BoxRec

joshj909 wrote: ↑09 Mar 2026, 08:52

Ruthless-RKO wrote: ↑09 Mar 2026, 06:44

joshj909 wrote: ↑09 Mar 2026, 06:38

He's the highest ranked contender and I don't see a non-champ beating him in an eliminator so as long as Zuffa don't keep ahold of it with Opetaia, through lawsuits, I don't see any other person becoming IBF champion before him.

He had a chance to become #1 at WBO again, through that final eliminator.. but he declined it. was easy bout to get himself back in that position.

That's not a vacant belt. As it stands he would only have to beat one or two of Masternak, Nyika and Masson to become IBF champion instead of facing Zurdo for the WBO.

The names you cited says something about the division and the value of alphabet belts. He just KO’d Nyika in 4 last year

Dominant win for Opetaia, nothing wrong with Glanton's effort, he never stopped coming forward, he just didn't have the same skill set to overcome Opetaia, not that it mattered but the ref was far too strict, took a point off Glanton for holding in the 6th despite no warnings or even much holding in general, the deduction in the 8th was a more justified I suppose but maybe could've have another warning, same with the point off Opetaia for holding in the 11th, just bizarre, despite most of the fight from round 4 onwards being fought at close quarters there wasn't too much holding, most of it was clean, Opetaia landed some quality punches throughout, the left hand, the lead right uppercuts doing some damage and he put together some crisp combinations, neat and tidy and levels above Glanton, whether it was at range or up close Opetaia was too good

Again, i enjoyed every single fight on the card. Missing more drama and stoppages, but Jai opetaia and this whole Zuffa boxing got a new fan in me

joshj909 wrote: ↑11 Feb 2026, 03:56

gilgamesh wrote: ↑11 Feb 2026, 01:22 David Benavidez is about to come into the Cruiserweight division and take the play away from Opetaia. He'll win a title or 2 and move up to Heavyweight while Jai stays stuck in the rut he's in now.

I think Benavidez or Zurdo could easily get undisputed when Opetaia drops his IBF belt

Zurdo will probably keep avoiding Jai. Jai paid his blood money to IBF so where is the problem?

I mean, technically he got that belt with the secound Bridies fight, but still feel kinda bad for him. Shouldn't have signed with Zuffa, though.

Brute wrote: ↑09 Mar 2026, 16:23

joshj909 wrote: ↑11 Feb 2026, 03:56

gilgamesh wrote: ↑11 Feb 2026, 01:22 David Benavidez is about to come into the Cruiserweight division and take the play away from Opetaia. He'll win a title or 2 and move up to Heavyweight while Jai stays stuck in the rut he's in now.

I think Benavidez or Zurdo could easily get undisputed when Opetaia drops his IBF belt

Zurdo will probably keep avoiding Jai. Jai paid his blood money to IBF so where is the problem?

So Zurdo has to sign with Zuffa to get the fight or he's ducking?

Sendo Takeshi wrote: ↑11 Feb 2026, 03:27 I don't see any mention of the IBF belt.
If he doesn't defend it, strip him.

He paid the IBF the licencing fees. What do you not understand?

Dana White: IBF treatment of Jai Opetaia has lawsuit potential

To Zuffa Boxing head Dana White, the behavior of the IBF in opting not to sanction its cruiserweight titleholder Jai Opetaia’s victory over Brandon Glanton has the appearance of a setup.

“[Opetaia] paid his sanctioning fees. [The IBF] flew a guy [supervisor Levi Martinez] out here [from New Mexico]. To say [IBF President Daryl Peoples] is disrespected … the [IBF] belt was in front of [Opetaia] the entire time [at Friday’s news conference] and [Opetaia] held it. It’s pretty clear what they’re doing and what’s going on,” White said at Sunday night’s post-fight news conference at the Meta Apex.

“I see lawsuits coming, that’s what I see.”

The IBF has been permanently scarred by that “L word,” ever since former president Bob Lee was found guilty in a 2000 racketeering trial connected to the acceptance of bribes. The outcome has been a strict adherence to its rules, particularly those related to the protection of mandatory title challengers.

After White opened his new Zuffa Boxing promotion by expressing disinterest in working with sanctioning bodies and working to lobby for a new Ali Act – which would allow the promotion to rank and award belts to its own fighters – the organizations’ presidents have kept their guard up.

Yet new Zuffa signee Opetaia, a 30-year-old from Australia, posed an alternate case. He was proud of his IBF belt he won in 2022 and defended in two separate reigns since, enduring a broken jaw and being stripped once earlier while remaining unbeaten.

White eased off his mandate to blackball the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO.

He explained it this way to Boxing Scene: “My goal is, before I ever got started, these kids had goals and dreams and ambitions and things they wanted to accomplish in boxing. We want to help them with that, not hurt them, and if it means working with sanctioning bodies, Jai wanted to do that. He paid his [sanctioning] fee.”

But on Friday, the olive branch began fracturing. White said IBF supervisor Martinez asked for a $200 per diem, received it and boarded a flight home to New Mexico, with Zuffa Boxing saying the IBF said it was “embarrassed” by the display of its belt at Friday’s gathering with reporters.

“What could we have done differently?” White asked. “[The IBF] 110 per cent planned to do that. The belt could not have been more prominent. I never disrespected them. These are the most bottom-feeder, low-level people I’ve ever been in business with … grabbing your $200 per diem check, and jumping back to fly home. That’s the level of rinky-dink bullshit we’re dealing with. Isn’t that crazy?

“We did everything we were supposed to do. … It’s very odd, very unprofessional. We’ll see how this whole thing plays out.”

Is it the last straw that will keep Zuffa from associating with the entities?

White answered: “We’ll see how it plays out. It will be on a case-by-case basis.”

White delivered an ultimate response to Boxing Scene on the matter by expressing that his company’s “going to sign everybody who we think has the potential to be a world champion and potentially the best in the world.”

Would that include Zuffa’s rumored interest in four-division champion Shakur Stevenson and heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk?

“Do you consider him to be one of the best in the world? Yeah. I’m going to fornicating sign everybody,” White said. “And we’re going to do more fights. This has been such a joke coming into this business. These people have been so unsophisticated and bad at what they do.”

Backed by a $10 million annual investment by Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh, a streaming deal with Paramount+ and an untapped additional pool of Saudi money that lured welterweight contender Conor Benn to Zuffa for a one-fight, $15 million deal, Zuffa and its parent company TKO (which also presides over the UFC and WWE) aim for a takeover that White said is fastening by the day.

“In two to three years, we’ll see where we stand,” White said. “The writing is clearly on the wall. Everyone can read it clearly now. What I thought will be two to three years from now is months from now.”

White repeated being unimpressed with the work of rival promoters Top Rank/Bob Arum, Premier Boxing Champions/Al Haymon, Golden Boy Promotions/Oscar De La Hoya and Matchroom Boxing/Eddie Hearn.

“I’m four fights in,” White said. “Imagine when I’m 44 fights in. We’ll have all the best guys here. I’ve done four shows this year. Bob Arum has done one. De La Hoya’s done one. PBC’s done none.

“The moral of this story is these guys are so bad at what they do, I don’t see how they stick around. I’m just blown away. Top Rank doesn’t have a TV deal. De La Hoya … don’t even get me started. Al Haymon, I heard he’s sick. Eddie Hearn, he’s a manager now. My rival? Holy shit.”

White went in on Hearn, who last announced he’s managing UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall in White’s primary combat sports organization.

“Is he a rival promoter? I haven’t seen a rival anything from these guys. He’s a manager now. We deal with lots of managers. I wouldn’t call Eddie Hearn a rival anything. He’s a manager,” White said.

“There’s a million of them. We deal with them all. What can Eddie Hearn bring to the management table that we haven’t seen in the last 25 years?”

Amid speculation Hearn may seek to open the UFC books and inspire a revolt among MMA fighters – who are seeing the Benn and Opetaia money after a wave of anti-trust litigation involving the UFC – White said, “Why is it a bad thing when guys make more money? Since 2001, fighter pay has gone [up] nonstop [in the UFC]. We just got a great new television rights deal. I promise you fighter pay is going to do just fine over the next seven years.”

From White’s perspective, he’s just doubling down on combat sports, maintaining he’s up for all of it.

“The fight business is a daily soap opera,” he said. “Always something. It’s part of the fun.”

Dana White Sees ‘Lawsuits Coming’ Following IBF-Opetaia Ordeal

Dana White suggested Sunday night that Zuffa Boxing could take legal action against the IBF for its 11th-hour decision not to sanction Jai Opetaia’s victory over Brandon Glanton as a cruiserweight title fight.

White confirmed following Opetaia’s lopsided points win at Meta Apex in Las Vegas that the sanctioning fee Opetaia’s team paid to the IBF in advance had not been returned to him as of late Sunday night. The UFC president and CEO, who is part of Zuffa Boxing’s leadership group, also stated that the IBF intended all along to strip Opetaia of its cruiserweight crown and used its perceived disrespectful placement of its belt at a press conference Friday night as “very odd and very unprofessional” rationale for not approving Opetaia-Glanton as a title fight.

“It’s pretty clear what they’re doing and what’s going on,” White said. “I see lawsuits coming, that’s what I see.”

The Ring reported Saturday that Opetaia paid the IBF a sanctioning fee in excess of $80,000 because he was led to believe he would fight Glanton for his IBF belt in addition to his Ring title and the inaugural Zuffa Boxing crown. Zuffa Boxing also agreed to pay all travel expenses to the event for an IBF supervisor, who flew home once the IBF announced its decision in a statement released late Friday night.

“I mean, you would think that would be the first thing that they would do,” White said regarding refunding Opetaia’s money. “The first thing you would think these guys would do is say, ‘We’re not sanctioning this fight. Our belt was disrespected. Here’s your money back.’ That hasn’t happened.”

As aggravated as White was with how the IBF handled Opetaia’s situation, he didn’t rule out continuing to work with sanctioning organizations if Zuffa Boxing’s decision-makers and fighters they sign are in agreement about pursuing title unification fights. Australia’s Opetaia repeatedly stated his goal remains to become undisputed cruiserweight champion, though that obviously would be more difficult assuming the IBF strips him.

Opetaia (30-0, 23 KOs) still wants to fight the winner of the bout between WBA/WBO champ Gilberto Ramirez (48-1, 30 KOs) and David Benavidez (31-0, 25 KOs) on May 2 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“Well, he wanted this,” White said. “He wanted to fight for the [IBF] belt. I mean, when you think about it, the guy has, I think he’s fought for the IBF title like 11 times or something like that. He’s defended it, broke his jaw in two places one time and finished the fight. And that’s the way [the IBF is] gonna do it? It’s very odd and very unprofessional, so we’ll see how this thing plays out.”

In hindsight, there isn’t anything White believes Zuffa Boxing could’ve done differently to appease the IBF, which indicated in its statement that Opetaia fighting for Zuffa Boxing’s belt violated one of its bylaws and necessitated stripping him. The 30-year-old Opetaia’s signing was announced by Zuffa Boxing in January, but he continuously stated thereafter that he wanted to keep his IBF belt.

“Well, what could we have done differently?,” White said. “Just like [another reporter] said a minute ago, [the IBF] planned to do that – 110 percent planned to do that. First of all, the belt was sitting right in front of him the entire press conference. The belt could not have been more prominent. And it was in front of him because it’s his belt. Those two were fighting for the [vacant] Zuffa belt. And then he held [the IBF belt] in his hand during the faceoff. I mean, we did everything the right way and the way that it’s supposed to be done. So, what would we or how could we have done anything differently? I never disrespected them. I never said anything about them.

“And when you think about the WBC, when [president Mauricio Sulaiman] went out on that big tour, doing all the media, I never said anything about the WBC, other than, you know, I wasn’t interested in working with the sanctioning bodies. That was it. I never called anybody out specifically or said anything negatively about any of ‘em, until about 10 minutes ago, when I talked about basically the sport as a whole. And all of these guys are involved in the sport and they’re all f****** rinky-dink. Literally, every one of these people are the most rinky-dink, bottom-feeder, low-level people that I have ever, I don’t know what you’d wanna call it, been in business with.”

Brute wrote: ↑09 Mar 2026, 17:47

Sendo Takeshi wrote: ↑11 Feb 2026, 03:27 I don't see any mention of the IBF belt.
If he doesn't defend it, strip him.

He paid the IBF the licencing fees. What do you not understand?

My friend, are you a bit slow? My comment is a month old, that was way before they paid the fees.. Also, paying the fees doesn't mean a fight has to get sanctioned...

I think the rule that has been broken must be one to make a poor reflection of the IBF by the boxer or promoter. The public uncertainty and what appeared to be that the IBF would not be on the line in the fight for a while would probably be their reason for that. Unless it's to do with Zuffa contracts which may prohibit opponents fighting for other organisations and would therefore prevent mandatory defences. However, the first is more likely.

joshj909 wrote: ↑10 Mar 2026, 08:11 I think the rule that has been broken must be one to make a poor reflection of the IBF by the boxer or promoter. The public uncertainty and what appeared to be that the IBF would not be on the line in the fight for a while would probably be their reason for that. Unless it's to do with Zuffa contracts which may prohibit opponents fighting for other organisations and would therefore prevent mandatory defences. However, the first is more likely.

i get why Zuffa signed Jai. Big name.

But what Zuffa's plan being they will not recognise any other orgs titles, they then broke their own rule because they signed Jai.

Jai became an exception.. but then IBF have allowed their belt to be unified with IBO, which they don't recognise as a major org..

Maybe it's to do with Zuffa's stance originally. and when the fight first got made, there was never any mention of the IBF title

An attorney representing Jai Opetaia says the boxer has “good reason to believe” the IBF’s decision to withdraw sanctioning of his title fight with Brandon Glanton was a “product of coordinated, industry-wide collusion designed to punish him for working with Zuffa Boxing and to deter other athletes from doing the same,” per a letter sent to a sanctioning body president that was obtained by @ringmagazine.

“Aided and abetted by other sanctioning bodies and promoters, the IBF's action intentionally inflicted (or threatened to inflict) significant financial and reputational harm on Mr. Opetaia. He is aware of messages between high-level executives essentially admitting to the scheme.”

Jai Opetaia’s IBF title remains intact – sanctioning body continues to deliberate

Jai Opetaia’s quest to become undisputed champion remains intact – for now.

Boxing Scene has confirmed that the IBF will continue to look into the unbeaten Australian southpaw’s case, with the possibility that he will not be relieved of his title reign. Opetaia, 30-0 (23 KOs), moved forward with his clash on March 8 versus Brandon Glanton, 21-4 (18 KOs), despite the IBF withdrawing sanctioning from the Zuffa Boxing 04 Paramount+ headliner.

Opetaia handily defeated Glanton via unanimous decision, though at the time the bout was deemed in violation of IBF Rule 5.H, discouraging reigning titlists from participating in unsanctioned bouts. However, his comments during his post-fight interview and the post-fight press conference stressing his commitment to pursue undisputed status swayed IBF officials at least from terminating his title reign for a second time.

“The status of the IBF cruiserweight title remains in deliberation,” the IBF said in an update obtained by Boxing Scene. “Jai Opetaia made comments during the post-fight press conference that have led the organization’s leadership to question whether he was made completely and fully aware by his advisors of the decisions he needed to make when committing to the bout against Brandon Glanton.

“The organization intends to look further into this matter.”

Sanctioning for the bout was finally granted on March 5, after assurances from Opetaia’s team that the Zuffa belt was merely a trinket and a trophy, and that it was not an actual unification bout. Communication was conducted between the sanctioning body and Sean Gibbons, who served as a go-between for Opetaia and his team.

All parties were on the same page, to the point where Gibbons’ Knucklehead Boxing wired to the IBF a payment of $73,000 – covering the sanctioning fees for the reported purses of Opetaia ($45,000) and Glanton ($6,000), along with the promoter’s fee ($22,000).

Zuffa sources leaked that it had paid in excess of $80,000, though – as previously reported by Boxing Scene – intentionally misleading others by including the due fees to referee Allen Huggins ($3,100) and judges Eric Cheek ($2,300), David Sutherland ($2,300) and Patricia Morse-Jarman ($2,300). Officials for bouts conducted in Nevada, as well as their assignment fees, are appointed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and have nothing to do with the sanctioning bodies.

However – as previously reported by Boxing Scene – the IBF decided to withdraw its sanctioning due to the miscommunicated status of the Zuffa belt that was made available for the fight. In turn, the abovementioned sanctioning fees were no longer applicable.

“Payment for sanction fees, which totaled $73,000.00, was sent to the IBF via wire transfer from Knucklehead Boxing’s bank account and received by the IBF on March 6,” read a statement from the IBF. “The IBF withdrew sanction of the bout at 8:22 PM EST on March 6 via email to Gibbons following the pre-fight press conference that took place shortly beforehand.

“At 1:22 PM EST on March 7 a wire transfer was processed from the IBF back to Knucklehead Boxing’s bank account returning the $73,000.00 in sanction fees. Immediately afterward, an email was sent to Gibbons including the wire transfer receipt advising that the funds had been returned. Gibbons acknowledged receipt of the email at 2:46 PM EST.”

Zuffa officials declared that Opetaia-Glanton would be for its inaugural championship, going out of their way to advertise the fight as for the “Zuffa Boxing world cruiserweight championship”. Furthermore, the promotion went out of its way to ignore the IBF – in line with Zuffa’s open admission that they refuse to work with the sanctioning bodies.

Jai Opetaia Takes First Step in Legal Battle With The IBF

Cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia has taken the first step in a potential legal battle with the IBF.

An attorney representing Jai Opetaia says the boxer has “good reason to believe” the IBF’s decision to withdraw sanctioning of his title fight with Brandon Glanton was a “product of coordinated, industry-wide collusion designed to punish him for working with Zuffa Boxing and to deter other athletes from doing the same,” per a letter sent to a sanctioning body president that was obtained by The Ring.

“Aided and abetted by other sanctioning bodies and promoters, the IBF's action intentionally inflicted (or threatened to inflict) significant financial and reputational harm on Mr. Opetaia. He is aware of messages between high-level executives essentially admitting to the scheme.”

The letter was sent Tuesday, two days after Opetaia scored a unanimous decision victory over Glanton at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas in the fourth Zuffa Boxing headliner.

Zuffa Boxing is the upstart boxing promotion led by Dana White and Nick Khan, a joint venture between TKO and Sela. At Sunday’s post-fight news conference, moments after White belted Opetaia as the first-ever Zuffa champion, the UFC president said: “It’s pretty clear what they’re doing and what’s going on. I see lawsuits coming, that’s what I see.”

Opetaia, who made the eighth successful defense of his Ring Magazine cruiserweight championship, has been steadfast that it's his dream to unify all four sanctioning body titles in addition to his other accolades at 200 pounds.

The IBF officially sanctioned the matchup as a title fight Thursday, only to reverse course one day later. IBF president Daryl Peoples, in a letter obtained by The Ring explaining the decision, said Friday that “the IBF was presented as secondary” at the final press conference to promote the fight.

“This is the embarrassment I was trying to avoid,” Peoples wrote.

In Tuesday’s legal letter, it was stated “the IBF and its co-conspirators face substantial civil (and criminal) liability to Mr. Opetaia.

"You are receiving this preservation notice because Mr. Opetaia believes you possess documents, communications, and information related to his potential claims against the IBF, Mr. Peoples, WBC, WBA, WBO, Matchroom Boxing, other entities, and individuals."

Essentially, the letter serves as potential prelude to a lawsuit instructing to preserve materials relevant to discovery.
Opetaia’s attorney, Las Vegas-based Jordan Smith, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Even after the IBF abruptly withdrew sanctioning, Opetaia complied with the rules. He still proceeded with the IBF’s same-day weigh-in at 210.7 pounds, well within the 214 limit. Opetaia still wore his belt in the ring and showed it off at his post-fight presser.

“I honestly don’t know what’s going on,” Opetaia said moments after the fight. “I just try to keep doing my thing. I’ve respected the belt, done everything in my power to keep the belt. I had the double weigh-in, abided by their rules. I’m really hoping they can put the nonsense aside.

"The beef is not between me. It’s the outside causing conflict and I’m the only one who’s suffering, but at the same time, it is what it is. What can I do? Train hard and work for the next one.”

“Earlier Tuesday, the IBF released a statement denying that it “intentionally withdrew sanction to cause harm. The IBF granted sanction of the Opetaia vs. Glanton bout in good faith expecting that what was assured is what would transpire. The status of the IBF cruiserweight title remains in deliberation.

“Jai Opetaia made comments during the post-fight press conference that have led the organization’s leadership to question whether he was made completely and fully aware by his advisors of the decisions he needed to make when committing to the bout against Brandon Glanton.”

That’s a reference to a decision to fight for either the IBF or Zuffa title, but not both. The IBF also said it refunded Opetaia’s $73,000 sanctioning fee.

Opetaia (30-0, 27 KOs) first won the IBF and Ring Magazine titles in a July 2022 decision victory over Mairis Briedis in Opetaia's native Australia. Opetaia fought through a broken jaw suffered in Round 2. Opetaia made one defense of his IBF title before he was stripped for choosing a voluntary defense in Saudi Arabia rather than an IBF-ordered rematch vs. Briedis.

Opetaia scored the first-round KO over Ellis Zorro in Riyadh and then regained the vacant IBF title in his next fight, another grueling win over Briedis. Opetaia made four more subsequent defenses of the IBF belt.

What I don't get is, if Dana and Turki want The Ring and Zuffa to be recognised belts, why do they want to hang on the coattails of the sanctioning orgs by holding all their belts? They know nobody cares about their belts, especially Jai, and they know they'll lose him and other boxers if they can't give them that.

Jai Opetaia has now been officially stripped of his IBF cruiserweight title following his victory over Brandon Glanton.

Opetaia remains The Ring and Zuffa cruiserweight champion.

Phew, crisis averted.
He is still the undisputed Zuffa world champion.

IBF STRIPS JAI OPETAIA OF ITS CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE

The IBF informed Jai Opetaia on Monday that he has been stripped of its cruiserweight title.

The 30-year-old Opetaia hoped after his easy victory over Brandon Glanton on March 8 that the IBF would allow him to keep his crown and pursue his dream of becoming undisputed champ, despite that the New Jersey-based governing organization declined to sanction his fight against Glanton as a title bout. The IBF, known for adhering to its rules, instead voted to take Opetaia’s title and explained its decision in a letter obtained by The Ring.

The IBF’s issue with the Opetaia-Glanton fight was that the Zuffa Boxing belt was at stake and that the IBF doesn’t recognize the upstart promotional company’s championship. Opetaia also retained his Ring title by beating Glanton on points, but the IBF didn’t have a problem with them fighting for that belt.

The IBF withdrew its sanction late the night of March 6 – after the final press conference to promote the bout at MGM Grand in Las Vegas and less than 48 hours before it took place at nearby Meta Apex, UFC’s performance center. The IBF therefore returned its sanctioning fee to Opetaia the next day.

Opetaia’s team initiated legal action after he defeated Glanton, though that didn’t alter the IBF’s stance.

Australia’s Opetaia (30-0, 24 KOs) expressed to Zuffa Boxing’s leadership group, which includes Ring owner Turki Alalshikh, when he agreed to sign with the company that he wanted to keep his IBF title and continue to pursue the WBA, WBC and WBO belts. Zuffa Boxing’s decision-makers ultimately want their titles to be recognized as the belts in boxing, but they accepted Opetaia’s position on becoming a fully unified champion.

The IBF say the bout violated "Rule 5 E.2" which outlines the sanctioning body's rules around unification fights, which is restricted to the WBC, WBA and WBO – the three other major world titles.

Opetaia's team told the IBF that the Glanton bout was not a unification bout and the Zuffa title would be a "trophy or token of recognition".

But the IBF disagreed with this assertion after Zuffa Boxing referred repeatedly to the belt as a "world cruiserweight championship" in fight week, leading the IBF to withdraw their sanctioning.

IBF stripping their boxers off they go to Zuffa. Zuffa's biggest name discrediting their belt as a token. Not a good day for Dana.