Zuffa Boxing is set to crown its first champion.
Company co-founder Dana White confirmed that the March 8 headliner between Jai Opetaia and Brandon Glanton will crown the inaugural Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight championship. Their previously reported bout will top the Zuffa Boxing 04 show on Paramount+ from Meta APEX in Las Vegas.
“Great fight and this will be for the first ever Zuffa world cruiserweight championship,” White announced via livestream Tuesday. “Whoever wins this fight will be our first world champion.”
Unsurprisingly, the IBF belt was not listed among the stakes for the forthcoming 200lbs championship affair. Opetaia is also the current RING champion, which also wasn’t mentioned in White’s announcement or the accompanying news release.
That said, White has previously stated that Zuffa and RING champions will be permitted to unify, though he doesn’t plan to work with or acknowledge the sanctioning bodies. Thus far, he’s remained true to his word.
Australia’s Opetaia, 29-0 (23 KOs) will make his U.S. debut along with the abovementioned groundbreaking event. The 2012 Olympian and long reigning 200lbs king will also attempt the eighth defense as the division’s lineal champion, dating back to his July 2022 points win over Mairis Briedis in his current hometown of Broadbeach, Australia.
Glanton, 21-3 (18 KOs) will enter his first major title fight. The 33-year-old Atlanta native has experience at the top level – including a knockout win over Marcus Browne last October and a competitive but clear points loss to former WBO 200lbs titlist Chris Billam-Smith six months prior in North London.
“What’s really interesting about this fight, [Glanton] has never been stopped,” noted White of Glanton’s three defeats all going the distance. “So, Jai undefeated at 29-0, with 23 knockouts. Brandon’s never been stopped and… has like an 86 percent knockout [to win] rate. Jai has like an 80 percent knockout rate.”
What wasn’t immediately made clear, however, is how the Zuffa belt will be at stake under the current Professional Boxing Safety Act.
As previously reported by BoxingScene, Zuffa Boxing has pushed for an amendment to the current safety act to be made law. There are several benefits to the proposed H.R. 4624 bill. Relevant to this development would be the ability for Unified Boxing Organizations (UBOs) such as Zuffa to create its own belts and rankings, in lieu of working with and being at the mercy of the sanctioning bodies.
A bipartisan effort by the U.S. Education and Workforce Committee allowed H.R. 4624 to advance to the House floor, by an overwhelming vote of 30-4 during a January 21 hearing in Washington, D.C.
However, the bill still needs to put to a vote and approved separately by the House and Senate floors before it is presented to U.S. president Donald Trump. Once fully approved at that level will the bill become law.
A hearing for the bill to appear before the House of Representatives has yet to be scheduled as this goes to publication.
That part does not seem to be of any concern at the moment to White, his partners or any of the parties involved in the watershed moment for the new league.
Opetaia is by far the most significant Zuffa signing to date, though the company has promised plenty of big news to come in the next few weeks and months.
