Opetaia launches legal action against the governing body.
When Zuffa Boxing signed Jai Opetaia earlier this year, it instantly got many people asking questions. That’s because at the time, Opetaia was the reigning IBF cruiserweight champion.
The problem with that? Well, not only did Zuffa state upon their entry into boxing that they would only recognise the sport’s original 8 weight classes (which would exclude cruiserweight), but they also stated that they wouldn’t recognise sanctioning body titles.
That meant–according to their original idea, at least–that any title was out of the question, including the IBF. And for a while, nobody was quite sure how everything would work out.
When Opetaia’s debut under the promotion was announced as a fight against Brandon Glanton for the inaugural Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight title, confusion only grew. But ultimately, with Opetaia going ahead with the Glanton fight, the IBF chose to strip him.
That marked the second time the Australian had lost that very same trinket without ever suffering defeat in a fight. After defeating Glanton, he would win the Zuffa title, but it seemed that Opetaia was still missing his old piece of hardware.
This has now proven to be the case, as the 200-pound force has now filed a lawsuit against the sanctioning body that took their title from him.
In a complaint totalling 123 paragraphs that was filed on the 14th of July to the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, Opetaia alleges that the IBF conspired with other sanctioning bodies to retaliate against him joining Zuffa, thereby convincing other fighters to avoid doing the same.
According to Uncrowned Boxing, the opening of the lawsuit reads as follows: “Corruption, backroom dealings, and industry-wide collusion in the sport of boxing sound like movie clichĂ©s, but unfortunately for world champion and plaintiff Jai Opetaia, they are very real.”
🚨 BREAKING: Jai Opetaia has now filed a lawsuit against the IBF over him being stripped of his world title, alleging an “coordinated, industry-wide collusion” involving prominent figures in the sport, including Eddie Hearn.https://t.co/dRUn8q8V7v
— EverythingBoxing | Darshan Desai (@EverythingBoxi2) July 22, 2026
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