Pick it: Jai Opetaia vs. Brandon Glanton
When to Watch: Sunday, March 8 at 9 p.m. Eastern Time (2 a.m. BST). A preliminary undercard will start at 5:30 p.m. ET (10:30 p.m. BST).
How to watch: Paramount+
Why to Watch: The lineal cruiserweight champion is making his debut with Zuffa Boxing, and he’s taking on a gritty challenger with a reputation for being in enjoyable battles.
Jai Opetaia, 29-0 (23 KOs), sits atop the throne of the 200lbs division – he will be making the eighth defense of his lineal and Ring Magazine crowns, as well as the sixth defense of his IBF belt (split between two reigns).
For some time, Opetaia has remained at cruiserweight while hoping for unification matches. And yet he recently signed with Zuffa Boxing, a promotion that wants to establish its own championships rather than work with the sanctioning bodies. Opetaia has been told that Zuffa will allow him to continue to aim for the other alphabet titles.
The other cruiserweight titles belong to Noel Mikaelyan (WBC) and Gilberto Ramirez (WBA/WBO), who will defend against visiting light heavyweight titleholder David Benavidez on May 2.
Opetaia, a 30-year-old from Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, first won his championship in July 2022, when he defeated Mairis Briedis by unanimous decision. But Opetaia made only one defense of the IBF belt before ditching it, persuaded instead to take a larger payday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, against Ellis Zorro in December 2023. He remained the lineal and Ring champion.
He then regained the still-vacant IBF title in May 2024, back again in Riyadh, earning it with another unanimous decision over Briedis in their rematch. He fought in Saudi Arabia one more time in October 2024, stopping Jack Massey in six rounds. Opetaia’s three bouts in 2025 were all at home, where he knocked out the 10-0 David Nyika in the fourth round in January; took out the 17-0 Claudio Squeo in the fifth round in June; and put away mandatory challenger Huseyin Cinkara in the eighth round in December.
Opetaia will bring his power and test just how appropriate Glanton’s nickname of “Bulletproof” is. It is certainly backed by his reputation
Glanton, 21-3 (18 KOs), is a fan-friendly 34-year-old fighter from Atlanta, Georgia, who remains a fringe contender in the cruiserweight division. His introduction to many boxing fans came because of an absolute war with Efe Apochi in 2021, which Glanton won via split decision on a Premier Boxing Champions broadcast.
Glanton suffered his first defeat in December 2022, losing a split decision to the 19-0 David Light, who then went on to challenge Lawrence Okolie for a cruiserweight title. Glanton, meanwhile, suffered his second straight loss when he dropped a majority decision to the 3-0 Soslan Asbarov in March 2023.
That led to some rebuilding for Glanton. He scored three consecutive knockouts, including traveling to Moscow to face the once-beaten Aleksei Egorov. After getting hurt by a headbutt in the 11th round, Glanton promptly put Egorov down for the count with a well-placed body shot. Glanton then landed a match with former titleholder Chris Billam-Smith last April on the undercard of the first megafight featuring Chris Eubank Jnr and Conor Benn.
Glanton vs. Billam-Smith promised punishment on paper and gave exactly that in reality, providing one heck of an appetizer before the grueling main event. Alas, Glanton lost a unanimous decision. He returned barely five months later, stopping Marcus Browne after six rounds in Nigeria in October. (In 2024 and 2025, Glanton also competed in the Team Combat League, which is now known as the Team Boxing League, going 7-7 in one-round bouts on 11 shows.)
Glanton’s performances, including competitive losses, have him ranked 15th by the IBF, just barely qualifying under the sanctioning body’s rules for this title shot; . Glanton is also rated eighth by the WBC and 11th by the WBO. This is his first title shot, and it should be fun while it lasts.
The undercard at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, includes a welterweight bout between Ricardo Salas Rodriguez, 22-2-2 (16 KOs), and Jesus Saracho, 16-2-2 (12 KOs); as well as a match between featherweights Adan Palma, 14-0 (9 KOs), and Pablo Rubio Jnr, 14-0 (5 KOs).
More Fights to Watch
Thursday, March 5: Steven Butler vs. Ramadan Hiseni (PunchingGrace.com)
The broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time (11:30 p.m. GMT).
Butler, 37-5-1 (31 KOs), is a 30-year-old who will be performing in front of his hometown crowd at the Casino de Montreal in the Canadian province of Quebec.
Butler has won three straight since moving up to super middleweight following a ninth-round technical knockout loss to Patrice Volny in 2024. Butler’s other defeats include a second-round drubbing against titleholder Janibek Alimkhanuly in 2023 and a fifth-round loss to Ryota Murata in 2019. In his most recent performance, Butler took out the 14-1-1 Stephane Fondjo in the ninth round last November.
Hiseni, 22-2-2 (8 KOs), is a 29-year-old from Switzerland who was a thorn in the side of the prospects he met in his two previous trips to Quebec. In 2024, he fought to a draw with the 12-0 Shamil Khataev. And last December, Hiseni outpointed the 13-0 Alexandre Gaumont. Hiseni has largely competed at or around 160lbs. And his two losses came by decision to the 9-7-2 Ismael Seck in 2022 and the 10-0 Eugeniusz Makarczuk in 2024.
Other fights on this show include light heavyweight prospect Lenar Perez, 15-0 (14 KOs), against long-faded former title challenger Isaac Chilemba, 27-10-3 (11 KOs); as well as the continued development of prospects such as junior welterweight Jhon Orobio and super middleweight Moreno Fendero. Orobio, 16-0 (14 KOs), will face Yomar Alamo, 22-5-1 (13 KOs), while Fendero, 13-0 (10 KOs), will take on Shawn McCalman, 17-1 (8 KOs).
Saturday, March 7: Ty Mitchell vs. Gabriel Rosado (DAZN)
The broadcast begins at 1 p.m. Eastern Time (6 p.m. GMT).
This is a Misfits Boxing event at Vaillant Live in Derby, England. Mitchell, a 35-year-old from Derby, fights in the promotion’s “MF Pro” division and is the company’s light heavyweight and super middleweight champion. He is a pro boxer who left the sport in 2011 after going 3-2 and returned in 2025, scoring three victories since.
Rosado, a 40-year-old originally from Philadelphia, is 28-17-1 (16 KOs). He’s long been considered shopworn in the sport, but every so often he will surprise with a winning performance or at least one that shows that he’s not completely done yet. Will he have enough left in the tank to take on someone on Mitchell’s level?
David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.
