We finally have the answer as to whether the International Boxing Federation will sanction the cruiserweight "title" fight between their champ Jai Opetaia and Brandon Glanton Sunday in the newly formed Zuffa Boxing main event in Las Vegas. And, that answer is- No.
The ongoing saga of whether reigning International Boxing Federation cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia of Australia will be fighting for that title in his Zuffa Boxing main event debut Sunday in Las Vegas has been answered. The organization has decided he'll be stripped of their world championship, which will assuredly cause more controversy this weekend around the bout with American Brandon Glanton.
And bigger, this action will cast doubt on whether other championship fighters will now reject Zuffa potential deals rather than lose their titles?
First, insider Dan Rafael reported on social media late Friday that Opetaia was informed by the IBF he's being stripped,
As Rafael wrote, the IBF, which had been privately going back and forth with Zuffa and Opetaia on whether to approve this defense has decided to invoke it's rule around non-sanctioned title fights, saying in a statement,
"With sanction withdrawn, the Opetaia vs. Glanton bout is now an Unsanctioned Contest. IBF Rule 5.H. states in part - 'An Unsanctioned Contest is a fight which the IBF has not formally approved for sanction or where sanction has been formally withdrawn. If a Champion participates in an unsanctioned contest within his prescribed weight limit, the title will be declared vacant whether the Champion wins or loses the bout.'"
Opetaia signed with the fledgling promotion in January, which has massive financial backing by Turki Alashikh and the Saudi PIF investment fund, and has been led to believe all along that he could keep his IBF title and defend it.
Zuffa has also been touting for weeks. that the fight is for the Ring Magazie cruiserweight belt that was previously bestowed on Opetaia and their own newly created Zuffa cruiserweight title.
For his part, Opetaia said at the Zuffa press conference for the fight on Friday night in Las Vegas that he was looking forward to defending the IBF title and, actually, had their belt sitting prominently on the table in front of him.
Alas, the IBF doesn't see it that way.
As we wrote previously about the fight itself, Opetaia, 29-0, 23 KOs, scored a devastating KO of Huseyin Cinkara in December, which was his fourth straight title win by KO. Glanton, 21-3, 18 KOs, is out of Georgia and lost a decision to prominent cruiserweight Chris Billam Smith of England last April.
Without question, Zuffa's ability to sign other current, prominent world champions will now be called immediately into question, since Opetaia is losing his biggest leverage for prominence and money by being stripped.