{"id":524449,"date":"2026-03-07T10:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T10:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/524449\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T10:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T10:21:07","slug":"ibf-declines-to-sanction-jai-opetaia-vs-brandon-glanton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/524449\/","title":{"rendered":"IBF declines to sanction Jai Opetaia vs Brandon Glanton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">After days of speculation, Zuffa Boxing <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Zuffa_Boxing\/status\/2030076142380822766\" rel=\"nofollow\">claimed<\/a> at today\u2019s press conference that both Jai Opetaia\u2019s IBF cruiserweight belt and the promotion\u2019s new titular title would be on the line when Opetaia met Brandon Glanton this weekend. Turns out that may have been premature, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ibf-usba-boxing.com\/ibf-withdraws-sanction-of-opetaia-vs-glanton-bout\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">as the IBF has now withdrawn its sanctioning<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Per the sanctioning body\u2019s press release, Opetaia\u2019s (29-0, 23 KO) team claimed that \u201cany belt awarded by Zuffa would be \u2018characterized as a trophy or token of recognition.\u2019\u201d The statement from the press conference contradicted that claim and made clear that organizers were treating it as a title unification, conflicting with the IBF\u2019s rules and prompting them to deem the fight an \u201cUnsanctioned Contest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Should Opetaia proceed with the fight, \u201cthe title will be declared vacant whether the Champion wins or loses the bout.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Opetaia has been vocal about his desire to unify with fellow titlist Noel Mikaelian and \u201cZurdo\u201d Ramirez, making this a gigantic blow to his ambitions. It was, unfortunately, also a predictable one; Zuffa publicly and proudly claimed that they would not work with the four sanctioning bodies, which strikes me as the kind of move you make after you\u2019ve established yourself as a player of similar caliber. It\u2019s unclear whether they failed to consider the implications of their stance or just expected the IBF, boxing\u2019s patron saints of following rules-as-written wherever they lead, to roll over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Whatever the case, Opetaia now has a choice to make, as do the rest of the boxers Turki and co. snatched up during their recent signing spree. Whether they like it or not, the four belts represent a level of prestige in the boxing world that the Zuffa title simply does not at this stage of their attempted takeover. Or at least, like, two of them do. Three if you squint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After days of speculation, Zuffa Boxing claimed at today\u2019s press conference that both Jai Opetaia\u2019s IBF cruiserweight belt&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,1920,85],"class_list":["post-524449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}