IBF strips Jai Opetaia of the cruiserweight world championship ahead Zuffa world title bout

No they don’t. Go watch unlicensed boxing if you don’t want sanctioning bodies.

 

What do you think Zuffa aspire to become?

 

Right.

Like I said last night in the round-by-round thread, I think they were appropriately ranked. A quality champion versus a guy ten spots below him.

It was nothing against the fighters and more about promoters creating shows around predetermined outcomes. They all do it. But, still. It's nice to see the applecart turned over every now and then.

 

It'll be interesting to see what Zuffa's stance becomes regarding stripping fighters ... if they start signing boxers and those guys decide they don't want to fight the fighters Dana wants them to fight.

The IBF, in particular, has historically been quick to jump the gun when it comes to stripping boxers, whether their decisions turn out to be embarrassing or not.

But they started out like Zuffa, immediately awarding their belts to the top fighters in each division (Holmes, Spinks, Hagler, Curry, etc.) and offering them a lot of leeway.

It'll be interesting to see what happens if an org decides to strip a champ and match two deserving guys ... and Zuffo is frustrated with the champ, too, and would prefer one those two deserving guys as their champ, as well.

They're a brand new org, so it'll probably be a while before the situation arises.

But all those orgs get to a point where they want to exert authority over boxers, even their stars. That's when they become like all the previous orgs.

Their announcers are already constantly pushing Jai to move up, and maybe he never does. Will that ruin their plans?

 

Jai still has hopes of unifying all the belts

I'm unsure as to why he is so set on doing so in a division that doesn't bring the big money

Maybe he wants that Uysk route which would make sense as he'd definitely have to fight his way in to a mandatory position if he were just to move up


I understand why he signed up to zuffa as nobody else is chucking money at him but he isn't the sharpest tool in the box if he couldn't see this scenario happening

 

Yet the IBF took the $75000.00 then stripped Jai.

 

I believe $80,000 was the number, but yes more than happy to take the money and the money for Glanton the challenger, on top of that.

 

Then they refunded the money.

 

If it isn't abundantly clear who the #1 at CW is today then you should probably find a different sport to follow because boxing obviously isn't for you.

 

Ok, perhaps they're nice guys after all. I wonder what the change of mind was.

 

I guess they gave it back. Weird they would agree, then change their minds the last few days before the fight.

 

The IBF agreed on March 3rd and then changed their mind on March 6th.

 

I'm still not convinced the matter of the IBF title is resolved, even now.

The IBF's latest correspondence is a press release dated March 10th. It concludes as follows :

'The status of the IBF Cruiserweight Title remains in deliberation. Jai Opetaia made comments during the post-fight press conference that have led the organization’s leadership to question whether he was made completely and fully aware by his advisors of the decisions he needed to make when committing to the bout against Brandon Glanton. The organization intends to look further into this matter.'

 

This aint over by half :

An attorney representing Jai Opetaia says the boxer has “good reason to believe” the IBF’s decision to withdraw sanctioning of his title fight with Brandon Glanton was a “product of coordinated, industry-wide collusion designed to punish him for working with Zuffa Boxing and to deter other athletes from doing the same,” per a letter sent to a sanctioning body president that was obtained by The Ring.

“Aided and abetted by other sanctioning bodies and promoters, the IBF's action intentionally inflicted (or threatened to inflict) significant financial and reputational harm on Mr. Opetaia. He is aware of messages between high-level executives essentially admitting to the scheme.”

Hmmm! Stay tuned...

 

The IBF will reinstate Opetaia’s title. I’d be prepared to put money on it.