Jai Opetaia has an emotional reaction to a turbulent fight week that culminated in victory over Brandon Glanton in first fight with Dana White
It was ZUFFA Boxing 004 last night.
Jai Opetaia (30-0, 23ko’s) defeated Brandon Glanton (21-4, 18ko’s) via unanimous decision.
Subsequently becoming the inaugural ZUFFA Boxing world champion, a belt that has created immense controversy.
Normally a world title fight build-up will be focused on the two fighters, but this was all about boxing politics.
Opetaia was the first notable name to sign with ZUFFA and Dana White.
Financially backed by SELA and Turki Al-Sheikh, ZUFFA intend to revolutionise the sport.
They have vocalised their plans to disregard the four major governing bodies, the WBC, WBO, WBA, and IBF.
This is where conflicting interests have sparked serious confusion in the build-up to this fight.
The Australian born king was the IBF and Ring Magazine cruiserweight champion.
For a number of years, Opetaia’s sole mission in the sport has been to chase undisputed supremacy at cruiserweight.
Despite signing with ZUFFA, his plans remained the same.
Undoubtedly, this left the fight world questioning everything.
Late into fight week, the IBF decided not to sanction the fight, with Opetaia consequently being stripped of his belt.
In the post fight press conference, the southpaw reacted.
“I broke my jaw for this belt (IBF), made sacrifices, missed my Nan’s funeral”.
“It’s not my style to bad mouth the IBF, it’s frustrating”.
“It hurts”.
“ZUFFA have my back, to have some solid dudes looking after us is refreshing”.
“I’ve been chasing unification fights for such a long time, we’re building a lot of momentum, and we hope we can get it over the line”.
Gilberto Ramirez (48-1, 30ko’s) vs David Benavidez (31-0, 25ko’s) takes place on May 2nd in Las Vegas.
Ramirez will be defending his WBA and WBO titles against the Mexican monster.
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