Opetaia’s status as champion undecided.
Ask anybody in the boxing fraternity who the best cruiserweight in the world is, and Jai Opetaia will inevitably be who they answer with.
The undefeated southpaw from Sydney, Australia, emerged from obscurity in 2022 when he defeated Mairis Briedis to win the IBF and The Ring titles in what was considered quite the upset.
Briedis’s only loss at that point had been a majority decision to Oleksandr Usyk. Since then, he had gone 5-0, winning the World Boxing Super Series and becoming a three-time world champion.
Though Briedis was 37 years old, he was expected to get past Opetaia. Instead, despite breaking the Australian’s jaw and running him right down to the wire, the iron man from Latvia birthed a monster.
Since his first victory over Briedis, Opetaia has gone 8-0 and made five defences of his IBF title, winning the belt again in a rematch with Briedis after being stripped of it.
Opetaia has come to be known as one of boxing’s most feared forces, posting venomous dispatches of Jordan Thompson, Ellis Zorro, David Nyika, Claudio Squeo, and Hüseyin Cinkara.
On Sunday, Opetaia (30-0, 23 KOs) defeated Brandon Glanton in his Zuffa Boxing debut, becoming the inaugural Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight champion.
It was this fight that the IBF decided it would not sanction after much deliberation, though Opetaia is still officially the organisation’s champion.
It has now been confirmed that Opetaia’s passionate post-fight speech regarding his holding of the belt prompted the IBF to falter in stripping the Australian, something they are still considering.
The full press release from the IBF can be read here:
Release from IBF. Read it for yourself. IBF a bunch of babies making things weirdly dramatic and unable to make a decision on whether Opetaia will remain its cruiserweight champion (or just looking to avoid a lawsuit despite the original statement saying he would be stripped if…
— Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) March 10, 2026
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