{"id":843652,"date":"2026-08-04T21:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T21:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/843652\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T21:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T21:46:12","slug":"jai-opetaia-fires-shot-at-david-benavidez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/843652\/","title":{"rendered":"Jai Opetaia Fires Shot At David Benavidez"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/MixCollage-04-Aug-2026-05-13-PM-2663.jpg\" alt=\"Jai Opetaia fires shot at David Benavidez\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" class=\"size-full wp-image-24099246\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p>Zuffa Boxing champion Jai Opetaia has a message for rival David Benavidez.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, it was announced that Opetaia would defend his Zuffa Boxing and Ring Magazine title against Noel Mikaelian on September 12th\u2019s Garcia-Benn undercard.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Only ONE can be the best cruiserweight in the world! \ud83c\udfc6<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jaiopetaia1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@JaiOpetaia1<\/a> v Noel Mikaelian will meet in the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GarciaBenn?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#GarciaBenn<\/a> co-main event!<\/p>\n<p>SEP 12 | \ud83d\udcfa <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/paramountplus?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@ParamountPlus<\/a> + <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DAZNBoxing?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@DAZNBoxing<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ivCchxOsn7\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/ivCchxOsn7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Zuffa_Boxing (@Zuffa_Boxing) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Zuffa_Boxing\/status\/2084731591880823035?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">August 4, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Opetaia, who has called for a fight against Benavidez, credited Mikaelian for taking the fight while Benavidez declined.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a huge card, and I look forward to showing the world once again why I\u2019m the best cruiserweight on the planet,\u201d Opetaia said. \u201cCredit to Noel for stepping up to the plate while others \u2014 yes, David Benavidez, I\u2019m talking about you \u2014 continue to run and hide.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mikaelian, the WBC champion, decided to face Opetaia instead of his mandatory challenger, Benavidez.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I step into the ring on September 12 against Jai Opetaia in Las Vegas, I intend to defend my world championship. This is the fight I\u2019ve wanted since becoming a two-time world champion, and I\u2019m ready to deliver,\u201d Mikaelian said. \u201cI haven\u2019t fought since December 2025 because of circumstances outside of my control. I refused to stay inactive. Champions are meant to defend their titles, and that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m prepared to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mikaelian\u2019s advisor Anthony Girges claims Benavidez\u2019s team never sent a reasonable offer after he was made the mandatory challenger.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy job has always been to put Noel in the best position to succeed. More than 60 days after Noel vs. David Benavidez was ordered, we still haven\u2019t received a bona fide offer. Noel wasn\u2019t going to sit on the sidelines any longer,\u201d said Anthony Girges, Mikaelian\u2019s advisor. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just about two champions in Noel and Opetaia. It\u2019s about protecting the integrity of the sport and making the fights the fans deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect Zuffa Boxing champion Jai Opetaia has a message for rival David Benavidez. On&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,53146,85],"class_list":["post-843652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-jai-opetaia","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843652","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=843652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}