Jai Opetaia became the first ever Zuffa Boxing champion with his lopsided win over Brandon Glanton on Sunday but the fight also cost him the IBF cruiserweight title after the sanctioning body decided to strip him of the belt just days before the event.
In a press release sent out late Friday night, IBF officials stated that Opetaia was competing in an “unsanctioned contest” and as a result he would be stripped of the belt if he moved forward with the bout against Glanton. The actions of the IBF just served as further proof to UFC CEO Dana White that he’s already winning the battle against the old guard in the sport of boxing because they’re all operating out of pettiness and fear with Zuffa already having such a huge impact after just four events.
“I was expecting a lot more from boxing period than what I’ve seen,” White said at the Zuffa Boxing 4 post-fight press conference. “Listen, this sport is broken for a reason. I mean it’s the most f*cking rinky-dink thing that I have ever seen in my life. I don’t know why I expected more from any of these people but boy let me tell you what, shit’s about to get good.
“It’s pretty clear what they’re doing and what’s going on. I see lawsuits coming, that’s what I see.”
As far as how Zuffa treated the IBF title, White was dumbfounded about how his promotion could have done anything differently considering Opetaia had the belt front and center at every event leading into the fight. Opetaia even spoke proudly about defending the IBF title during a pre-fight press conference but then suddenly late Friday night, the sanctioning body dropped the statement saying he would be stripped of the belt if he moved forward with the matchup against Glanton.
“What could we have done differently?” White said. “They planned to do that. 110-percent planned to do that. First of all, the belt was sitting right in front of him the entire press conference. The belt could not have been more prominent and it was in front of him because it’s his belt. Those two were fighting for the Zuffa belt. Then he held it in his hand during the [faceoff], I mean we did everything the right way and the way it’s supposed to be done. What would we or how could we do anything differently? We never disrespected them. I’ve never said anything about them.
“The first thing you think these guys would do is say ‘we’re not sanctioning this fight, our belt was disrespected, here’s your money back.’ That didn’t happen.”
White revealed that an IBF official flew to Las Vegas for the event and allegedly collected a per diem paid to the promoter before turning around and flying back to New Mexico hours later.
He believes that just serves as further proof of the kind of people involved with the sanctioning bodies so embedded in boxing, which is why he’s convinced Zuffa is going to conquer the sport faster than he ever realized possible.
“I never called anybody out specifically and never said anything negative about any of them until about 10 minutes ago when I talked about the sport as a whole and all of these guys are involved in the sport,” White said. “They’re all f*cking rinky-dink, literally every one of these people are the most rinky-dink bottom feeder, low-level people that I have ever been in business with.
“Beating up babies. F*cking nothing. No resistance. No competition. Bottom feeder bullshit like showing up and grabbing your f*cking per diem check and jumping back on a plane and flying home. $200. The guy flew here, took $200 and got back on a plane and went back. That’s the level of rinky-dink bullshit that we’re dealing with here.”
As far as other promoters, White doesn’t feel very threatened by them either, especially given the level of activity he’s seen thus far in 2026.
He was asked about potentially working with some of them to put on even bigger and better events in the future but White doesn’t see how that would even work given the state of some of the top promoters in the business.
“We’ll have all the best guys here,” White insisted. “All the best guys are going to be here. We’ve done four events this year. Bob Arum’s done one. [Oscar] De La Hoya’s done one. PBC’s done none. We’ve done four. I just told you I might do 44 fights this year, we’ll see how this all plays out but we’re definitely doing more than we had planned to do. I think the moral of this story here today is these guys are so bad at what they do. I don’t know how they stick around. I don’t know how any of them are literally going to co-exist.
“They’re just really bad. You see it, you feel it. I’m just blown away by how really bad it is. You’re asking me about Bob Arum — Bob Arum’s been in the business for f*cking 50 years, he put on one fight this year. He doesn’t have a TV deal, as far as I know. He doesn’t even have a TV deal. What am I going to work with him on? He has no TV deal. The guy’s been around for 50 years or more. No TV deal. De La Hoya? Don’t even get me f*cking started on that guy. PBC hasn’t put a fight on. I haven’t seen or heard anything from Al Haymon. I heard he’s sick. I don’t know what’s going on with Al and then Eddie Hearn is a manager now. My rival Eddie Hearn. Holy shit. Who else? Who? I’m four fights in. These guys are f*cking terrible.”
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