Dana White says Jai Opetaia vs. Noel Mikaelian is on despite a
\ncease-and-desist order from Don King.<\/p>\n
IBF cruiserweight champion Opetaia is scheduled to fight WBC
\nchampion Mikaelian at Zuffa Boxing on Sept. 12 at T-Mobile Arena in
\nLas Vegas. However, Mikaelian\u2019s promoter, Don King Promotions, has
\nfiled a cease-and-desist order against Zuffa Boxing to cancel the
\nbout.<\/p>\n
Don King Promotions demands cancellation of Jai Opetaia vs.
\nNoel Mikaelian
\n
\nDKP claims to be Mikaelian\u2019s sole promoter and accused Zuffa of
\ntrying to bypass them. While DKP was admittedly in talks with White
\nfor the fight, the negotiations fell through. DKP also says that
\nMikaelian is allowed to \u201cdiscuss and explore\u201d other fights, but
\nonly with their approval, which he doesn\u2019t have in this case. DKP
\nsent Zuffa a letter directing them to cancel the fight and stop
\nfurther business dealings with Mikaelian without their consent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis firm represents Don King Productions, Inc. (\u201cDKP\u201d), the
\nexclusive worldwide promoter of the World Boxing Council (\u201cWBC\u201d)
\nCruiserweight Champion, Noel Mikaelian,\u201d DKP wrote. \u201cDKP has a
\nlegally binding and valid Promotional Agreement (\u201cAgreement\u201d) with
\nMikaelian that grants DKP the exclusive worldwide rights to engage
\nMikaelian\u2019s services for any and all professional boxing matches.
\nIt has come to DKP\u2019s attention that TKO Group Holdings, Inc. and
\nZuffa Boxing (collectively, \u201cTKO\/Zuffa\u201d) have engaged the
\nprofessional boxing services of Mikaelian, without DKP\u2019s
\npermission, consent or authorization, to engage in a bout against
\nJai Opetaia (\u201cOpetaia\u201d) on September 12, 2026 in Las Vegas, NV (the
\n\u201cBout\u201d). TKO\/Zuffa\u2019s actions are outrageous and a clear tortious
\ninterference with DKP\u2019s Agreement\u2026TKO\/Zuffa must immediately cancel
\nthe Bout between Mikaelian and Opetaia and announce such
\ncancellation in the media immediately. Furthermore, TKO\/Zuffa
\ncannot engage Mikaelian for any match without DKP\u2019s express,
\nwritten consent and permission. DKP has not and does not give
\nTKO\/Zuffa permission to negotiate with Mikaelian or to engage him,
\ndirectly or indirectly, in any professional fights. TKO\/Zuffa is
\nhereby directed to immediately cease and desist its actions and to
\nhave no further communications and\/or business dealings of any kind
\nwith Mikaelian.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, White insists that Mikaelian and Opetaia are fighting this \u201cHe\u2019s fighting this weekend,\u201d White said at the post-fight presser
\nweekend in Las Vegas. While the
\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> CEO didn\u2019t divulge any details,
\nhe claims to have a good relationship with Don King and denies any
\ninterference with Mikaelian\u2019s contract<\/p>\n
\nfollowing
\nWeek 5<\/a> of
\nDana White\u2019s Contender Series<\/a>. \u201cThis f*cking sport is the most
\nunsophisticated sport that I\u2019ve ever seen in my life. It\u2019s f*cked
\nup for a reason. I\u2019ve always had good dealings with Don. Have you
\never seen a scenario where we go and try to interfere with
\nsomebody\u2019s contract? We don\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dana White says Jai Opetaia vs. Noel Mikaelian is on despite a cease-and-desist order from Don King. IBF…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[1331,703,49,48,44,82],"class_list":["post-889124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-article","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}