{"id":564932,"date":"2026-05-04T02:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T02:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/564932\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T02:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T02:06:10","slug":"benavidez-not-interested-in-opetaia-fight-under-zuffa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/564932\/","title":{"rendered":"Benavidez Not Interested In Opetaia Fight Under Zuffa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxing247.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add East Side Boxing as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770669047_552_google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqKAgKIiJDQklTRXdnTWFnOEtEV0p2ZUdsdVp6STBOeTVqYjIwb0FBUAE?ceid=US:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow East Side Boxing on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know why he went to Zuffa. I\u2019m not gonna go over there and fight for a Zuffa title,\u201d Benavidez said when asked about a possible bout with Opetaia. \u201cI think Dana White has shown he doesn\u2019t wanna do fights with PBC, DAZN. If we can come to an agreement, make a big fight, let\u2019s do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The obstructionist label is sticking to Benavidez because the Zuffa excuse feels like a convenient shield. In boxing, whenever a fighter starts talking about \u201cnetworks,\u201d \u201cplatforms,\u201d or \u201cpromotional lanes\u201d instead of \u201ctraining camps,\u201d fans usually smell a duck.<\/p>\n<p>The message from \u2018The Mexican Monster\u2019 at the post-fight press conference last night sounded defensive. Benavidez has spent years calling out Canelo for \u201chiding\u201d behind demands; now that he\u2019s at cruiserweight with Jai targeting him, he\u2019s the one setting the conditions.<\/p>\n<p>If Benavidez truly believes he is the best in the world, the platform shouldn\u2019t be the dealbreaker. By drawing a line at the Zuffa structure, he\u2019s basically saying he\u2019d rather keep his PBC\/DAZN comfort zone than risk his unbeaten record against the most dangerous man, Opetaia, in the division.<\/p>\n<p>Opetaia moved into the new promotional lane earlier this year, winning the inaugural Zuffa cruiserweight title after leaving the IBF belt behind. The move created a split between that route and the existing sanctioning-body system tied to promoters like PBC and platforms such as DAZN.<\/p>\n<p>The timeline on X is absolutely lighting him up right now. The term \u201cMexican Monster\u201d is being replaced by \u201cMexican Marathon Runner\u201d in some of the harsher threads, as fans aren\u2019t buying the corporate red tape excuse for a second.<\/p>\n<p>There is a massive sense of irony being pointed out: Benavidez spent years acting as the \u201cpeople\u2019s champion,\u201d torching Canelo Alvarez for using promotional hurdles to avoid their fight. Now that he\u2019s the one holding the belts and facing a terrifying threat in Jai Opetaia, he\u2019s using the exact same playbook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI don\u2019t know why he went to Zuffa. I\u2019m not gonna go over there and fight for a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-564932","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\/564932","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=564932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}