Jai Opetaia vs. Brandon Glanton | Paramount+ - March 8, 2026

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Previous thread got deleted when Boxrec decided to backdate a week.

[Ruthless-RKO]

I thought Cruiserweight wasn’t one or the divisions hey we’re gonna focus on.

[joshj909]

I don't see what putting these in the Apex does for them

[margaret thatcher]

ah yes, zuffa doing boxing as usual, crowning their champ in a totally meh fight

[gilgamesh]

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.

[Sendo Takeshi]

I don't see any mention of the IBF belt.
If he doesn't defend it, strip him.

[joshj909]

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

[Sendo Takeshi]

How can Benavidez/Zurdo become undisputed, when they don't fight Opetaia for the inaugural Zuffa boxing world championship?

[Ruthless-RKO]

Jai Opetaia-Brandon Glanton Confirmed For Ring, Zuffa Belts March 8

Dana White confirmed on social media Tuesday that Jai Opetaia and Brandon Glanton will fight for The Ring and Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight championships March 8 in Las Vegas.

Paramount+ will stream the 12-round bout between Australia’s Opetaia (29-0, 23 KOs) and Atlanta’s Glanton (21-3, 18 KOs) as a main event from UFC's Meta APEX Performance Center.

Opetaia, 30, is the most prominent roster addition announced by Zuffa Boxing since it launched last year. The Sydney native is the consensus No. 1 cruiserweight in boxing.

An IBF spokesperson informed The Ring on Tuesday that Opetaia still holds its cruiserweight title and that neither he nor anyone from his team has indicated that he will vacate it. Glanton is ranked 15th by the IBF, and thus eligible to fight for Opetaia's belt, but it was not clear based on Zuffa Boxing's announcement if it will be at stake.

Zuffa Boxing – fronted by White, president and CEO of UFC – initially indicated it wouldn't acknowledge IBF, WBA, WBC or WBO titles in its bouts. White admitted recently though, that Zuffa Boxing won't force its fighters to relinquish sanctioning championships they've won to fight for the fledgling promotional company's crowns.

Zuffa Boxing recognizes Ring titles in part because Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority and owner of The Ring, is also part of Zuffa Boxing's leadership group.

Opetaia has defended his IBF belt four times since he won it a second time in May 2024, defeating Latvia's Mairis Briedis by unanimous decision in their 12-round rematch in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Glanton, 33, stopped former WBA light heavyweight champ Marcus Browne (25-3, 16 KOs) after the sixth round of his most recent bout October 1 in Lagos, Nigeria. He lost his previous bout by unanimous decision to former WBO cruiserweight champ Chris Billam-Smith (21-2, 13 KOs) on April 26 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.

The Ring ranks Glanton as its No. 10 contender for Opetaia's title.

[joshj909]

Jai Opetaia-Brandon Glanton Confirmed For Ring, Zuffa Belts March 8

Dana White confirmed on social media Tuesday that Jai Opetaia and Brandon Glanton will fight for The Ring and Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight championships March 8 in Las Vegas.

Paramount+ will stream the 12-round bout between Australia’s Opetaia (29-0, 23 KOs) and Atlanta’s Glanton (21-3, 18 KOs) as a main event from UFC's Meta APEX Performance Center.

Opetaia, 30, is the most prominent roster addition announced by Zuffa Boxing since it launched last year. The Sydney native is the consensus No. 1 cruiserweight in boxing.

An IBF spokesperson informed The Ring on Tuesday that Opetaia still holds its cruiserweight title and that neither he nor anyone from his team has indicated that he will vacate it. Glanton is ranked 15th by the IBF, and thus eligible to fight for Opetaia's belt, but it was not clear based on Zuffa Boxing's announcement if it will be at stake.

Zuffa Boxing – fronted by White, president and CEO of UFC – initially indicated it wouldn't acknowledge IBF, WBA, WBC or WBO titles in its bouts. White admitted recently though, that Zuffa Boxing won't force its fighters to relinquish sanctioning championships they've won to fight for the fledgling promotional company's crowns.

Zuffa Boxing recognizes Ring titles in part because Turki Alalshikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority and owner of The Ring, is also part of Zuffa Boxing's leadership group.

Opetaia has defended his IBF belt four times since he won it a second time in May 2024, defeating Latvia's Mairis Briedis by unanimous decision in their 12-round rematch in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Glanton, 33, stopped former WBA light heavyweight champ Marcus Browne (25-3, 16 KOs) after the sixth round of his most recent bout October 1 in Lagos, Nigeria. He lost his previous bout by unanimous decision to former WBO cruiserweight champ Chris Billam-Smith (21-2, 13 KOs) on April 26 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.

The Ring ranks Glanton as its No. 10 contender for Opetaia's title.

And just like that, The Ring belt has lost all value. The magazine is being used as a marketing piece for a boxing promoter who controls the belts. They're circumnavigating the Ali act because the amendments won't get approved.

[Sendo Takeshi]

Should've asked these questions before signing with them.. Jai obviously doesn't have a good manager. He needs someone, before destroying his career.

https://x.com/BOXINGnBBQ/status/2025459 ... 35085?s=20

[giacomino]

I wonder how much Opetaia makes beating up nobodies several times a year vs the more standard belt-holder method of fighting twice a year, one nobody and one contender. Honest question because I don’t know the economics of boxing anymore. Maybe he makes more KOing three or four questionable #15 ranked fighters at home than a top contender, so it’s makes sense. I would think he’d earn more vs Ramirez or Benevides, or a few fringe heavyweights than he could in 3-4 years or fighting nobodies. He’s definitely has had poor management and I hate to see him waste his prime, but maybe it makes economic sense

[Ruthless-RKO]

Should've asked these questions before signing with them.. Jai obviously doesn't have a good manager. He needs someone, before destroying his career.

https://x.com/BOXINGnBBQ/status/2025459 ... 35085?s=20

[Perkin Warbeck]

Would someone explain to me why Jai Opetaia vs Brandon Glanton is not on the BoxRec schedule?

The fight is just a week and a half away, and it is for the time-honored Ring belt along with the new Zuffa title.

[Ruthless-RKO]

They’re still gonna pay fees and the IBF will be on the line as well.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Seven bouts set for Zuffa Boxing 4

Veteran boxing journalist Dan Rafael reported the following matchups on Wednesday via social media, citing a source. The promotion has not yet officially confirmed these bouts.

A 10-round welterweight contest pits Ricardo Salas (22-2-2, 16 KOs) against fellow Mexican Jesus Saracho (16-2-2, 12 KOs).
An eight-round featherweight bout features Adan Palma (14-0, 9 KOs) of San Diego against Pablo Rubio (14-0, 5 KOs) of Los Angeles.

Vlad Panin (23-2, 15 KOs) meets Shinard Bunch (22-3-1, 18 KOs) of Queens, New York, in a 10-round welterweight bout.
Joshua Juarez (14-0, 9 KOs) of Laredo, Texas, takes on Jardae Anderson (11-1, 9 KOs) of Davenport, Iowa, in an eight-round heavyweight clash.

Jaycob Ramos (4-1, 1 KO) of Dallas, Texas, makes his second Zuffa Boxing appearance in a six-round featherweight bout against Ethan Perez (8-0, 3 KOs) of San Antonio, Texas.

Brady Ochoa (9-0, 2 KOs) of Gilbert, Arizona, faces Adrian Serrano (6-0-1, 3 KOs) of Salinas, California, in a six-round lightweight bout.

Another six-round featherweight bout features returning Emiliano Alvarado (10-0, 6 KOs) of Palm Springs, California, against Erick Rosado (16-4, 11 KOs) of the Dominican Republic.

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Fight Week!!

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Jai Opetaia aware of the constant danger Brandon Glanton presents

Jai Opetaia is undefeated and the lineal cruiserweight champion while his opponent has lost three times before, but Opetaia knows it will take an excellent performance to give Brandon Glanton his fourth defeat.

“He’s tough. He’s gritty. And he wants to win,” Opetaia told Dan Rafael of Fight Freaks Unite. “He's got a fornicating big engine. He keeps walking forward and he's just ready to have a crack. He’s dangerous the whole fight. So you got to be switched on. You got to be ready to fornicating get in the trenches – and we are.”

Opetaia has demonstrated his own power of late, winning his past four bouts by knockout or technical knockout, albeit against opponents who weren’t considered among the top tier at 200lbs: Jack Massey, David Nyika, Claudio Squeo and Huseyin Cinkara. Still, while Opetaia has 23 KOs in his 29 wins, he knows that power alone can’t win this fight. He has to be wise about when and how to apply it.

“We box smart, we do our thing. And you just make him walk on the shit, bro. He’s just going to fornicating do what we do, and that’s the science of the sport,” Opetaia said. “Our skill levels are completely different, but he’s big, he’s strong. It doesn’t take a fornicating rocket scientist to see our styles and how this fight matches up.”

Glanton, 21-3 (18 KOs), is a fan-friendly fighter whose history of entertaining battles includes victories over Efe Apochi and Aleksei Egorov, and a defeat to Chris Billam-Smith. (His other losses came via split decision to the 19-0 David Light and majority decision against the 3-0 Soslan Asbarov.)

It’s no surprise, then, why Glanton was selected as the opponent for Opetaia’s debut with Zuffa Boxing, which will headline on March 8 on Paramount+ from the Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This will be Opetaia’s eighth defense of his lineal and Ring Magazine championships, as well as the sixth defense of his IBF belt (split between two reigns). And he remains hopeful that he will land unification bouts with the other cruiserweight titleholders, including the winner of the May 2 pay-per-view main event between WBA/WBO titleholder Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez and WBC light heavyweight titleholder David Benavidez.

“That is my goal: It’s undisputed by the end of the year, and then whatever happens after that, bro, let’s go,” Opetaia said. “But there’s obviously a lot of moving parts for a plan like that to happen, and they all got to line up. And at the end of the day, all I’ve got to do is keep winning. I’ve got a job to do on the eighth.

“I keep talking about all these other fights, and they all sound good coming out of my mouth. But unless I take care of business on the eighth of March, it is all imagination. It’s all just talk and it sounds good, but we’ve got a fornicating hard test on March 8. So I don’t want to lose track of that.”

[Sendo Takeshi]

Saying it’s Jais secound best fight is like saying a silver medal in a two man race is a massive achievement...technically true, but look at the field..

[joshj909]

Saying it’s Jais secound best fight is like saying a silver medal in a two man race is a massive achievement...technically true, but look at the field..

He looks more exciting but he's not definitely better than Massey or Cinkara but that's a pointless debate anyway because none of them are that good.

[keithmoonhangover]

I'm going out on a limb and predict this is going to be an all action war.

[Perkin Warbeck]

Every single boxer on this card has a winning record - compare this to Queensberry, Top Rank, and Matchroom events.

https://boxrec.com/en/event/941662