{"id":485742,"date":"2026-03-20T11:39:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T11:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/485742\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T11:39:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T11:39:23","slug":"oleksandr-gvozdyk-says-zuffa-paid-more-than-other-offers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/485742\/","title":{"rendered":"Oleksandr Gvozdyk Says Zuffa Paid More Than Other Offers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The former WBC light heavyweight champion, now 38, didn\u2019t dress it up when explaining why he joined Dana White\u2019s new venture. His last fight ended in a stoppage loss to Radivoje Kalajdzic on Zuffa\u2019s February 1 card, yet he\u2019s already looking to run it back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 38, right. If I had a lot of options, then maybe I would be, but I don\u2019t have many options,\u201d Gvozdyk said to Boxing Social. \u201cThey offered me to fight Kalajdzic for three times less than what Zuffa pays me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That perspective places his decision in a different light. Zuffa\u2019s pitch has centred on structure and control, but for Gvozdyk, the appeal was simpler. The offer was stronger at a stage where alternatives were thinning. He still wants the same opponent again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve requested a rematch against the same guy, but I don\u2019t know if they are going to approve it or not,\u201d Gvozdyk said. \u201cI definitely feel like he deserved this win, but I feel like I definitely deserve the rematch after a fight like this. I\u2019m ready to prove that it was just a lucky punch, or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fight had turned sharply. Gvozdyk dropped Kalajdzic early, then lost control before being stopped in the seventh. It left him needing a win, with two defeats in his last three bouts, including the loss to David Benavidez. Away from the ring, he described Zuffa as rigid and highly structured.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit different here. The protocol is super strict. It\u2019s quite a corporate system,\u201d he said. \u201cAt Top Rank, you have one person responsible for one task, but at Zuffa, you have five people responsible for one task. It\u2019s like an army. It\u2019s very strict in terms of them telling you what to do and what to wear, but I\u2019m a very disciplined person, and I have no problem with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gvozdyk also sees his role inside that setup. Zuffa is signing younger fighters, but it still needs experienced names to carry credibility while it builds its own titles outside the traditional sanctioning bodies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey obviously need more seasoned fighters to bring attention to their promotion,\u201d he said. \u201cOpetaia is one gear in a whole mechanism. Zuffa fighters will have to prove to the boxing audience that they are legit and that the Zuffa championship is legit.\u201d<\/p>\n

He sits in that spot now. A former champion with a known name, but with fewer options and a lot riding on the next result.<\/p>\n

A rematch with Kalajdzic would give him a chance to steady things. Another loss would tighten his options even further, regardless of which system he\u2019s fighting in.<\/p>\n

Tom Reynolds is a boxing analyst covering major fights and career turning points, with a focus on performance, trajectory, and long-term implications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former WBC light heavyweight champion, now 38, didn\u2019t dress it up when explaining why he joined Dana…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-485742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}