LAS VEGAS – To Zuffa Boxing head Dana White, the behavior of the IBF in opting not to sanction its cruiserweight titleholder Jai Opetaia’s victory over Brandon Glanton has the appearance of a setup.
“[Opetaia] paid his sanctioning fees. [The IBF] flew a guy [supervisor Levi Martinez] out here [from New Mexico]. To say [IBF President Daryl Peoples] is disrespected … the [IBF] belt was in front of [Opetaia] the entire time [at Friday’s news conference] and [Opetaia] held it. It’s pretty clear what they’re doing and what’s going on,” White said at Sunday night’s post-fight news conference at the Meta Apex.
“I see lawsuits coming, that’s what I see.”
The IBF has been permanently scarred by that “L word,” ever since former president Bob Lee was found guilty in a 2000 racketeering trial connected to the acceptance of bribes. The outcome has been a strict adherence to its rules, particularly those related to the protection of mandatory title challengers.
After White opened his new Zuffa Boxing promotion by expressing disinterest in working with sanctioning bodies and working to lobby for a new Ali Act – which would allow the promotion to rank and award belts to its own fighters – the organizations’ presidents have kept their guard up.
Yet new Zuffa signee Opetaia, a 30-year-old from Australia, posed an alternate case. He was proud of his IBF belt he won in 2022 and defended in two separate reigns since, enduring a broken jaw and being stripped once earlier while remaining unbeaten.
White eased off his mandate to blackball the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO.
He explained it this way to BoxingScene: “My goal is, before I ever got started, these kids had goals and dreams and ambitions and things they wanted to accomplish in boxing. We want to help them with that, not hurt them, and if it means working with sanctioning bodies, Jai wanted to do that. He paid his [sanctioning] fee.”
But on Friday, the olive branch began fracturing. White said IBF supervisor Martinez asked for a $200 per diem, received it and boarded a flight home to New Mexico, with Zuffa Boxing saying the IBF said it was “embarrassed” by the display of its belt at Friday’s gathering with reporters.
“What could we have done differently?” White asked. “[The IBF] 110 per cent planned to do that. The belt could not have been more prominent. I never disrespected them. These are the most bottom-feeder, low-level people I’ve ever been in business with … grabbing your $200 per diem check, and jumping back to fly home. That’s the level of rinky-dink bullshit we’re dealing with. Isn’t that crazy?
“We did everything we were supposed to do. … It’s very odd, very unprofessional. We’ll see how this whole thing plays out.”
Is it the last straw that will keep Zuffa from associating with the entities?
White answered: “We’ll see how it plays out. It will be on a case-by-case basis.”
White delivered an ultimate response to BoxingScene on the matter by expressing that his company’s “going to sign everybody who we think has the potential to be a world champion and potentially the best in the world.”
Would that include Zuffa’s rumored interest in four-division champion Shakur Stevenson and heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk?
“Do you consider him to be one of the best in the world? Yeah. I’m going to fucking sign everybody,” White said. “And we’re going to do more fights. This has been such a joke coming into this business. These people have been so unsophisticated and bad at what they do.”
Backed by a $10 million annual investment by Saudi Arabia boxing financier Turki Alalshikh, a streaming deal with Paramount+ and an untapped additional pool of Saudi money that lured welterweight contender Conor Benn to Zuffa for a one-fight, $15 million deal, Zuffa and its parent company TKO (which also presides over the UFC and WWE) aim for a takeover that White said is fastening by the day.
“In two to three years, we’ll see where we stand,” White said. “The writing is clearly on the wall. Everyone can read it clearly now. What I thought will be two to three years from now is months from now.”
White repeated being unimpressed with the work of rival promoters Top Rank/Bob Arum, Premier Boxing Champions/Al Haymon, Golden Boy Promotions/Oscar De La Hoya and Matchroom Boxing/Eddie Hearn.
“I’m four fights in,” White said. “Imagine when I’m 44 fights in. We’ll have all the best guys here. I’ve done four shows this year. Bob Arum has done one. De La Hoya’s done one. PBC’s done none.
“The moral of this story is these guys are so bad at what they do, I don’t see how they stick around. I’m just blown away. Top Rank doesn’t have a TV deal. De La Hoya … don’t even get me started. Al Haymon, I heard he’s sick. Eddie Hearn, he’s a manager now. My rival? Holy shit.”
White went in on Hearn, who last announced he’s managing UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall in White’s primary combat sports organization.
“Is he a rival promoter? I haven’t seen a rival anything from these guys. He’s a manager now. We deal with lots of managers. I wouldn’t call Eddie Hearn a rival anything. He’s a manager,” White said.
“There’s a million of them. We deal with them all. What can Eddie Hearn bring to the management table that we haven’t seen in the last 25 years?”
Amid speculation Hearn may seek to open the UFC books and inspire a revolt among MMA fighters – who are seeing the Benn and Opetaia money after a wave of anti-trust litigation involving the UFC – White said, “Why is it a bad thing when guys make more money? Since 2001, fighter pay has gone [up] nonstop [in the UFC]. We just got a great new television rights deal. I promise you fighter pay is going to do just fine over the next seven years.”
From White’s perspective, he’s just doubling down on combat sports, maintaining he’s up for all of it.
“The fight business is a daily soap opera,” he said. “Always something. It’s part of the fun.”
