{"id":528323,"date":"2026-03-09T07:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T07:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/528323\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T07:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T07:01:08","slug":"and-new-opetaia-becomes-first-zuffa-boxing-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/528323\/","title":{"rendered":"And New! Opetaia Becomes First Zuffa Boxing Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Jai Opetaia and Brandon Glanton went head-to-head last night (Sun., March 8, 2026) for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/zuffa-boxing-news\/426542\/pic-first-official-look-at-diamond-encrusted-zuffa-boxing-championship-belt-for-opetaia-vs-glanton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">inaugural Zuffa Cruiserweight title<\/a> inside the Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada in the main event of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/zuffa-boxing-news\/425074\/zuffa-boxing-4-card-start-time-date-and-location-opetaia-vs-glanton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zuffa Boxing 4<\/a>, a historical bout for Dana White and Turki Al-Sheikh\u2019s boxing promotion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The two men took a while to get warmed up, but once Opetaia found his rhythm he dictated the pace of the fight throughout, constantly beating Glanton to the punch. Opetaia\u2019s great footwork was a big factor because every time Glanton tried to unload a bomb Opetaia wasn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">On the inside, where some experts felt Glanton would have the advantage, Opetaia had his way with the challenger, as well, using his dirty boxing to clip the big man time and again. One of the big stories of the fight was the officiating, as the referee on duty didn\u2019t appreciate the clinch game and gave both men little-to-no time to tie up before separating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">He also took a point away from Glanton on two occasions, and took one from Opetaia \u2014 the first of his career \u2014 which didn\u2019t sit too well with the ringside announcers. Strict officiating aside, the judges had no trouble scoring the fight in Opetaia\u2019s favor as the Australian-born fighter won every fight with relative ease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Check out some of the highlights below:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Opetaia still his eyes set on becoming the undisputed cruiserweight champion despite getting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/zuffa-boxing-news\/427165\/ibf-to-strip-jai-opetaia-of-cruiserweight-title-ahead-of-zuffa-boxing-4-championship-fight\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stripped of the IBF title recently<\/a>. He still holds The Ring belt and will be a very interested observer on May 2 as Gilberto Ramirez defends his WBA (Super) and WBO Cruiserweight titles against David Benavidez, who<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/boxing\/414297\/david-benavidez-to-challenge-gilberto-ramirez-for-cruiserweight-titles-on-may-2-in-las-vegas\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> is moving up in weight to challenge \u201cZurd<\/a>o\u201d for his belts. Noel Mikaelian, meanwhile, holds the WBC strap while the IBF strap is currently vacant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">To checkout the latest Zuffa boxing-related news and notes click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/zuffa-boxing-news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jai Opetaia and Brandon Glanton went head-to-head last night (Sun., March 8, 2026) for the inaugural Zuffa Cruiserweight&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,114155],"class_list":["post-528323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-zuffa-boxing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528323","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=528323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}