IBF deliberates on Opetaia world title sanctioning call
Murray Wenzel |
The IBF is reconsidering its decision to strip Jai Opetaia’s world title belt, as the messy fall-out of his dominant US debt continues.
Australia’s pound-for-pound king pulverised Brandon Glanton in an impressive Las Vegas introduction on Sunday (Monday AEDT) to move to 30-0.
But the fight, Opetaia’s first since signing with UFC boss Dana White’s controversial Zuffa Boxing, has been overshadowed by boxing politics.
The IBF had stated the unbeaten cruiserweight, who has also held The Ring’s world title belt since 2022, would be stripped and the position vacated if the fight went ahead.
The organisation, which had already stripped Opetaia once when he fought an unsanctioned bout in 2023, had reversed its initial call to sanction the event after Friday’s press conference.
That decision came when IBF officials deemed Zuffa had broken assurances that its inaugural world championship fight would be a ceremonial trophy and not its own world title.
White created Zuffa with the intention to shake up boxing’s foundations, and openly claimed it would not recognise the sport’s traditional bodies.
Opetaia continued to parade the IBF belt among his spoils before and after the fight.
In his post-fight interviews, Opetaia admitted he remained unsure of his status with the IBF, but repeatedly stated his desire to unify the division, hoping the “nonsense” would be resolved given “the beef’s not with me”.
Opetaia’s sincerity struck a tone with the IBF, which on Wednesday (AEDT) confirmed its cruiserweight world championship status “remains in deliberation”.
“Jai Opetaia made comments during the post-fight press conference that have led the organisation’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 IBF statement read.
“The organisation intends to look further into this matter.”
Opetaia’s long-time manager, Mick Francis of Tasman Fighters, was involved in the initial talks with the IBF, but according to the statement was not a party to discussions in the days before the fight that led to the sanction’s withdrawal.
The IBF also refuted White’s post-fight claims that the organisation had pursed a sanctioning fee, claiming the $US73,000 had been immediately returned once the sanction had been withdrawn.
The statement also rejected claims that it chose not to sanction the bout, due to feeling disrespected by how its belt was displayed in the lead-up to the fight.
AAP