Australia’s Jai Opetaia is close to finalising terms to fight Brandon Glanton on March 8 in the first date of his co-promotional agreement with Zuffa Boxing.
The IBF cruiserweight champion followed his stoppage of Huseyin Cinkara in December on a Tasman Fighters promotion by agreeing terms to become Zuffa’s most significant recruit and is set to follow doing so by fighting the 33-year-old Glanton. It had previously been speculated that he would confront the WBC champion Noel Mikaelian in a unification title fight.
Las Vegas is the likeliest destination for what might yet be a non-title fight, but there is no question of it not being staged in the US, regardless of Opetaia’s popularity in his home country.
Glanton lost to Chris Billam-Smith via decision in April before stopping Marcus Browne in six rounds in Lagos, Nigeria in October.
Opetaia, 30, succesfully defended his title three times in 2025, when earning stoppages of David Nyika, Claudio Squeo, and Cinkara.
“I’m with Zuffa Boxing now,” he said when his latest career move was announced in January. “I’m pumped for the future. Exciting times, man. Let’s get these big fights over the line: unification and undisputed too. Let’s go.”
