The roller coaster situation surrounding Jai Opetaia and the IBF cruiserweight championship took another dramatic twist on Tuesday as the sanctioning body, which had previously declared Opetaia would be stripped of his title for fighting for the Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight title this past Sunday, declared that they have not yet stripped Opetaia.
Ahead of Sunday’s fight, in which Opetaia easily defeated Brandon Glanton by decision in the main event of Zuffa Boxing 04, the IBF announced that they were no longer sanctioning the fight for its title, claiming they were initially told that the fight was not a unification bout as the Zuffa Boxing title was simply a “trophy or token of recognition.” After the pre-fight press conference, the IBF stated their reasoning for withdrawing sanctioning was that the press conference “made it clear that the Zuffa world cruiserweight title would still be contested on March 8.”
Many reports stated the IBF had felt its belt had been disrespected or devalued by its presentation at the press conference, which was at least part of the reason to withdraw sanctioning.
UFC CEO and Zuffa Boxing promoter Dana White commented on the situation after Sunday’s fight and was upset with how the situation had impacted Opetaia, who has very clearly stated his goal to unify all of boxing’s world titles at cruiserweight.
“[Opetaia] paid his sanctioning fees,” White said. “[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 would continue by going at IBF’s practices leading up to the event, claiming the situation was pre-planned by the sanctioning body.
“What could we have done differently?” White said. “[The IBF] 110 percent 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.”
Tuesday’s press release by the IBF served to cloud the situation further. The IBF stated they had immediately returned any sanctioning fees that had been paid. The release also claimed that the placement of the IBF title belt at the press conference was not a factor in their decision.
“Peoples did not express concern over the IBF belt’s placement during the press conference in the email,” the statement read. “In fact, the words ‘belt’ and ‘placement’ were not included in the email at all, contrary to what certain members of the boxing media have suggested in reports stating that they were granted access to the email sent by Peoples.”
Furthermore, the IBF claimed they “categorically reject any suggestion or claim that it intentionally withdrew sanction to cause harm.”
Perhaps most confusing, especially for Opetaia, who stated after his win that he did not believe he had actually been stripped of his title, the statement ended with the claim that the IBF has not decided what to do in regards to the status of the title.
“The status of the IBF cruiserweight title remains in deliberation,” the statement read. “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.”
At least for now, Jai Opetaia remains IBF cruiserweight world champion. Whether that changes is anyone’s guess at this point.