The Ariel Helwani Show - Inside Boxing | Jai Opetaia defeats Brandon Glanton, becomes first-ever Zuffa champion, IBF strips Opetaia, Benavidez-Zurdo winner next?

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

To kick things off, Dan Canobbio and Chris Algeri break down Jai Opetaia’s dominant performance over Brandon Glanton and how he looked in his Zuffa Boxing debut (02:29). In the 11th hour, the IBF decided to strip Opetaia of their title, which set off a frenzy. Was this the right thing to do? Why did Opetaia sign with Zuffa if he wants to be undisputed (11:01)? We end the show with a debate on Opetaia’s chances vs. Gilberto Ramirez and David Benavidez, who fight on May 2 (30:39).

All right, everyone, welcome back. It is another edition of Inside Boxing Live, presented by ppv.com. It's Dan Kenobi, it's the champion, Chris Algieri, and it is a fight announcement for you. Fondora versus Thurman is streaming live on ppv.com, March 28th, join us in the live interactive chat. Subscribe. You don't have to subscribe. I'm used to saying subscribe, because that's what everyone else does. You don't have to subscribe to ppv.com.

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So if you order the fight on March 28th, do it with us. Do it with us so we can keep doing these podcasts. Chris, how are you? It is midnight. Never did a podcast this late at night because we just watched Jaya become the first ever. Zufa. boxing, cruiserweight, world, champion, history. History. History. Historic.

Historic. Where were you? This is going to go down in history because this is the first one. And we're going to look back on this many years from now. We're going to look at this like, wow, this is the first one. But right now, nobody cares. It's not that big of a deal right now. It will be. It will be. But yeah, right now it's not that big a deal. And it's late at night on a Sunday. So I'm, I'm, I'm a little low energy. No, you're good, bro. You look great. Sufa, guys, you got to fix this Sunday night thing.

I know this is a great, this is like a good idea to avoid the big UFC fights that were last night. But you got to do them. If you're going to do Sunday, you got to do them earlier. It is midnight on Sunday night before a work week. And we're sitting here talking about boxing. That part doesn't make sense to me. We're going to bring Opataya over to the U.S. We're going to expose them to more fans.

we're going to expose them to more casuals. Wasn't a lot of fans on the apex, that's for sure. No, that part didn't make much sense to me, you know, burying him on a Sunday night at midnight. You know, I'm doing it earlier. We'll get into the shenanigans with the belts with the IBF. Like his IBF was on his shoulder in the post fight, but I'm pretty sure he's going to be stripped.

We'll get to all that in a second. But as for the actual fight, I thought Opataya looked good. Borderline great. I threw out sensational on Twitter and I got some pushback. Brandon Glenn is made out of cement. It's very hard to judge a guy's power based off of Brandon Glenn's Iron Dome, because he was just taking a lot of punishment. There's a lot of holding in there.

But Opatai, I took about two or three rounds to heat up. I thought he looked really great in there. His movement was really impressive. Then his left hand is just vicious. The right uppercut that Andre Ward pointed out would be a big pine punch. He was able to land that. I thought it was a good performance. He dominated Glenn.

We've never seen Glennon lose like that. So I thought all in all, really, really good performance from the clear number one cruiserweight in the world. That's Jayao Yopataya. There's a reason that we stayed up to watch this fight. And it's Jayaaipataya. And this fight went pretty much exactly how I expected. Because Glantan is a guy that's fought on Pro Box on our air quite a bit. And he is what he is.

And what you say? You made a cement. Max said on the air that Glantz has made out of concrete. you know, and I was like, that was, that's really well put. The guy is super strong. He's super fit. He's got, he's got the heart and will of concrete as well. And even in the 10th round, he looked like he was ready to break.

And he didn't, you know, he had that big hematoma in the middle of his forehead. He was getting, he was getting pieced up by Opataya's defense, which is very dynamic. And he looked like he was ready to break, but he didn't. He pushed through. He soldiered on 12th round. He took some big shots. Look like he was almost ready to go there. Refereeing was a little awkward and weird, taking a lot of points,

but making himself a star tonight and not in a good way. But all in all, this is why we're up talking about this, because Jaya Apataya is that good. He is that guy. Phenomenal dynamic offense, solid defense, fantastic gas tank show tonight. Because that was something I always worried about him. Because he's a big guy for Cruiser.

Layton fights. We've seen him face. He faded against Bradus, you know, both fights actually. You know, one, the first one, he had a broken jaw. But the second one, he faded late. And Bradus actually came on. He didn't show that tonight. He actually kept ratcheting it up.

I thought he looked really good at the end of the fight. Even his post-fight press conference, post-fight interview. He looked sharp. He looked energetic. Yeah, Jai's the guy, man. He's the guy at Cruise weight, and there's no question. And Glanton, man, I tip my hat to you. Super tough, dude.

but he is what he is. This fight went exactly how I thought. Yes, I agree. Like you said, pressure fighters usually takes a little bit for them to warm up. And I don't believe that Alpataia actually showed that he was a pressure fighter tonight. I thought he was very calculated. It's not at all right. I'm not going to come in there and be pressure.

I'm going to be a little more poised. I'm going to be even more calculated. I'm not going to smother my shots. I'm going to pick my spots. And he did. and it was beautiful. Like, the movement to me is what I think, how he can beat, like, a Zerto, who's more of a plotter,

and how he could beat a Benavita. It's not saying that I think he could beat those guys. But that's the athleticism of this guy. Like, it almost makes me think that he can't go to heavyweight with how easily he moves in there. But we see the same thing for Musick, that you could win at 2-2-10, 2-15, if you have sublime skills.

I'm not ready for that conversation just yet. But I really liked what I saw from Obataya. in there with a guy in Glenn who was top 15-ish in the division. IBF put him at 15 so they could sanction this fight and then not sanction it. The ring has him at 10, but there's a lot of Fugaisiness with the ring rankings as of late.

Glenn didn't came in there and do what he's supposed to do. He was a tough guy that looked apart in all the lead-up. Like, oh, look at this guy. He's muscle-bound. You know, he's had some big wins and some big knockouts early on in his career. Like, he's going to give Obataya a big test, but we knew there's going to be levels here.

And Opataya, the biggest thing now for him is just staying active and staying in the public eye and not going away and not disappearing to Australia and becoming irrelevant. Like stay in front of the people here in the U.S. Like go, like be part of that TKO machine. Go to Monday Night Raw. Go to UFC events. And, you know, bang the drum for the Zerto and Benevita's winner because that's clearly what he wants. That's clearly what we need to see next. So I think Opataya, he passed all the tests.

A lot of shit was thrown his way between the nonsense with the IBF and the sanctioning bells. And that's got to be a huge distraction too. And the first big signing for Zufa, all that that comes with all that. First time he's actually out in front of a big promotion and like the main guy. You know, you can attest how much that has to play a role. And he went in there and did what he had to do. Yeah, the thing about Obataya is it's not just about keeping him active because Mashroom kept him active.

And he was knocking guys heads off, cleaning them off. But there were guys no one heard of. If you look at his last like five opponents, they're all Sterling records, undefeated guys. They're all guys. I don't know them. If I don't know them, that's a problem. You know, boxing fans in America are really not going to know them if I don't know

them. But he's knocking their heads off. So you're getting highlight real knockouts. But I think with the marketing machine and the marketing, the marketing, arm of Zufa and everything that are doing to push him, I think it'll help. It'll help get him out there more to the American audience because that's really what he needs. And I think that's part of the reason why his stint with Matrum didn't work out. Because even Matrim, as big as they are and as important they are on the world stage, Matchroom USA is relatively new. I think it started in

2018 over here or whatever. They don't, they're not, they're not like deep in the culture here. They're still much better at building UK fighters. They've got the marketing down over there. They don't have it over here quite the same. And also, Eddie just doesn't care about the fighters over here as much as he does the fighters in the UK. And I can say the same thing about Australia.

He just does not care. Look at the way he's moving boots compared to the way he's moving Ben. Look at the way that he's moving Josh Kelly compared to the way he's moving any of the other fighters that he has in the U.S. he's had a couple guys in the U.S. and he's hot and heavy in the beginning, and then he kind of like, eh, falls off. He doesn't have that personal connection

the way he does with a lot of the UK fighters, the Anthony Joshua's, and the formerly Conner Ben's. But I think with this marketing arm of Zufa and their tendrils in the U.S. market, Jayopataya has a chance to become a star. But to your point, he's going to need those big fights. He's going to need the Zerdos of the world. The David Benavides is of the world, although I don't think he's going to stay a cruise awake, regardless of Alifikos.

He needs the McElion unification fight, even though he's already been tripped to the IBF. It's very muddled. It's very muddled. It's ridiculous. But if you're a cruiserweight, you need the names. You need the other guys. You need the other champions because otherwise nobody cares. Did you watch the post-fight interview with Opatai?

and Max. Yes. They were having two different conversations in the ring. 100%. They weren't even talking to each other. No, it was bizarre. Because Opataya is in there saying, I want to be undisputed. He's saying WBA, WBO, I BF.

I got two, three belts. We're adding belt. There's like eight belts out there now. He wants them all. Max is then not even listening to a single word of saying and say, no, no, no, no, it's not. You're undisputed already. Like, you're the guy.

No, you're not. You're the guy because we say you're the guy. Like we signed you to Zufa. You're the guy. Don't bring up any of these other guys because we don't need belts to say that you're the best. I say you're the best. We say you're the best. TKOs says you're the best.

So it isn't undisputed, even though it's very disputed because there's a guy over there in Zerda Ramirez, who's been pretty damn good at Cruiserweight. There's a new player on the block here. And David Benavitas, they're going to be fighting each other. There's a WBC champion. and now there's going to be a new IBF champion because he's about to get stripped. But that goes to this whole nonsense

that we saw with the IBF. Let's get into that. Like, you get stripped of the IBF belt the minute he steps into the ring. Apparently the IBF flew to Las Vegas and we're all for it. They paid their sanctioning fees. Obataya's team.

He even did the next day weigh in. Then you hear that the IBF pulls the sanction at the last minute citing one of their rules saying that if there's another sanctioning body in there, that that's not recognized, which is Zufa, then we don't have to sanction the fight. They pull the plug on it.

They also say IBF that they felt disrespected with the way that the belt was lack of display from the belt up on the stage. It was just an absolute mess. And we're as media, as fans, we're sitting here trying to figure out, like, what to make of it all? And like, who's to blame here?

Did Zufa go too far? Like, these things can all be true, Chris. Opataya should not have signed with Zufa if he's this dead set on wanting to be undisputed, plain and simple, number one. Or he doesn't know the rules. And I mean the rules of Zufa in terms of maybe he didn't think that they were going to really stick to this.

They're like, nah, you know, but listen, Dana also, the message is muddled because Dana came out and said like, oh, you know, we just signed, we signed, oh, but I, he's going to be able to fight for all the bells. That was a, that was a headline. That was something said. So, who knows what was said to him in, in the, you know, pre-signing or whatever. It was one of those like, you tell them the girl all these different things so you can get a date with her and then you get the date and you're like, yeah, well, I really mean all that, you know, kind of thing. Yeah, I just want you to come over. Yeah, we're actually not going now that you're here. Now that you're here, yeah, we're not going to that five-star French restaurant anymore. We're not going to that Michelin Star restaurant. It seems kind of like that, but I like how Upataya got in that interview and just just like, no, I want to be unspewed and I'm talking about these belts. He just did not get the memo at all.

No, you lost one tonight, man. Yeah, dude. But you gained a trophy because that's what we found out. The Zufa belt is technically classified as. But the IBF, like, these can all be true. Opataya should not have signed with Zuf if you wanted to be undisputed, plain simple. The IBF had every right, not the sanction of fight with an organization that's actively looking to eliminate them. The IBF could have made their stance known a lot sooner than Fight Week if they want.

seems like they wanted to make a big stink and they wanted to do some grandstanding here. And Zufa could have done a better job. Right. And Zufa could have done a better job of displaying the titles and doing what all the other organizations do when it comes to unification bouts and what all the other promoters do, I should say, in terms of unification bouts and making it known. Like Zufa was playing it halfway too. Like you said, Dana White says, we're going to let this guy fight for the belts. And then all week long, you don't see a single thing about the. I BF. In fact, nothing at all.

But Jai kept bringing it. He brought it on stage. He kept wearing it. I remember being like, I'm looking at, you know, the headlines of him possibly, you know, potentially being stripped, which the writing was on the wall. He was 100% going to get stripped tonight all week long. You're looking at it. But then he kept bringing it on stage. He kept having it on stage. He kept having it on stage. He kept having it on the shoulder. Fighters care about belts. And obviously Jai Opataya cares about these belts. He kept bringing it on stage. He kept bringing it up afterwards. And you're right. The way that they have been. kind of like tiptoeing in and out of, I don't know, the belt, this belt, we can have the belt and then not really. Both sides. Both sides. Like, all right, guys, if you're coming to take over

and you're the New World Order, don't play nice. Say no belts on stage. Say no belts. Say they're not recognized. Take your sanctioning and have your fighters, have your fighters understand that if you come to us, your belt is gone. Yeah, we're recording this, obviously.

Yeah, yeah, I agree. We're recording this, obviously, like, moments after the fight ended. So Dana White is doing his post-fight press conference right now. So I'm scouring Twitter. And I'm seeing Dana White hints at a lawsuit aimed at the IBF over the decision to strip Jayopataya over his cruiserweight title for what I'm hearing. That's something the IBF is very nervous about, according to Chris Maddox. Hmm. So, like, I think, like I said, all these things can be true.

I think the IBF, like, they shouldn't have stripped them the way they did. it. Like the words they use, like we felt disrespected. Yeah, that's silly. Like, you knew what was going to happen. Like, all parties knew what was going to happen, seemingly besides Opataya, because I watched Opataya his manager do an interview with Fight Hub, I believe. And he's, you know,

whining and I can't believe they did this to us. Like, what do we children? Let's, you know, let's figure this all out. This is unfair. I can't believe. And in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, okay, is anyone going to ask, like, didn't you foresee this? Yeah, did anyone explain this to you? Is this not on the contracts?

Is this? Like, we all... Do you not watch boxing news? Do you not listen to our show? This is not... This shouldn't be a surprise. Right, that's what I mean. It's like good management.

You should take a look at every potential option, every potential roadblock, every potential, something like interference. I know exactly who you're signing with, or were they just so damn excited to sign with anyone? Because, as Pauley, when I just said on ProBox, it's like, this is a guy that has fought for short money.

It's just like, let's get me in the ring, I don't care. And then they sign with the first organization that shows any type of interest in them, and it will give you a better sparring, which is clearly, like, helped out because that's the one thing. You keep getting the same sparring over in Australia. I mean, you're not getting good sparring. So they have them here in Vegas at the PI for months. And that's, like, you know, they can entice these fighters.

So I felt like the management team, everyone here is, I hate to be that, like, not choose aside, like, everyone here is guilty because they all knew what they were doing. And then they waited for, like, the night before the fight, literally, for shit to hit the fan. But everyone knew, like, what was going to happen. Ultimately, that belt was not going to be on the line. And then that was going to be lawsuits, who was to blame? And was IBF wrong, was Zufor wrong? It's a mess.

It's absolute mess. Now we have six belts. Everybody knew messaging was not done properly, but also. This, both sides are doing this too. This personal slight that they're taking, the IBF, all we felt is, shut up. You're an organization. You're not a person. You're not an individual.

You shouldn't feel disrespected. This is business. So this whole personal thing, and we're seeing that more and more of the governing bodies. WBC was the same thing with Marshall-Marin-Shal-Suleman. Now we're saying it with the IBF, this personal slight. The fighters, okay, we understand. You're a service to fighters. It's not the other way around.

These governing bodies, again, are starting to act like they're bigger than the fighters. You're not bigger than your champions. Your champions are everything. You have to respect your champions. Stop with the respect thing. You're not an entity. You are an organization. You're not a person.

You're not slighted by your champions or the way that another organization or promotion is treating you because you're a goddamn belt. Stop that. Your champions are what matters. Champions are the ones who are people. So you need to respect the champions, not the other way around. Now, in terms of the organization, get your pay, be prominent on stage, and get mentioned. I understand that. That's the business aspect of it.

Take the respect thing out of it. There's too much of that talking with these businesses. Fighters deserve respect, not promotions or belts. And in that sense, like this silliness of going back and forth and waiting until the last minute, It should be by the rules, by the book. I like how the IVF is standing by their, you know, standing on business for all this stuff. They're doing that right. But how you go about it, the messaging matters.

Why didn't they stand on business weeks ago? Why didn't they come out and say, why fly there, why show up? What is like humiliation ritual? Why fly there, show up? Get the sanction fee, apparently. Like, apparently they, he paid the 80,000 or whatever, 60,000. That's why, Dan. That's why you show up.

And then leave? Yes. Grab your check and go. It is a business. Dana also hinted at the guy showed up and was like, where's my per diem? So it's like, here's a question. Should Zufa have put their, should they have been more strict about it? Yeah, they should have said you can't come?

You don't have a ticket. Should they have said you're not welcome? Sorry, Jai. You signed with us. Like, yes, I believe you. Yes, if you're trying to be the power player. Yep. Don't, don't half ass it.

Don't have ass it. Don't half ass. You're not allowed here. I think they did it to Maricio. They're like, you're not invited to the event, whatever. Like, yeah, you're not allowed here. Your business is not welcome here. Yeah, but their belts were still on the line, though,

because they wanted that undisputed marketing. That's where the messaging is muddled. If you are the big dog who's coming in and kicking down doors and telling people to get out, be that. Don't sneak in. Don't sliver in and then be like, okay, guys, you got to go. You're not supposed to be here. Kick him out the door right.

away. You can't be here. You know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking they both wanted to use, they both were using each other for some press. Like Zufuf is using IBF to be like, can you believe these guys? Look at it. They want their sanctioning fee. They took it. They left.

They're saying we got disrespected. But you let them get, you let them come in the door. And then you're the IBF. And the IBF's like, you know what? We're going to fly there. We're going to put them on the defensive. We're going to make them kick us out. And then they're the one that they're staring.

There's a stare down. They're staring at each other. And Zuf is like, yeah, I guess we could go through with this. And then I was like, shit, now we're going to go through with this. And then no what? We would disrespect it. Even though the belt was on the table, he was holding the belt. The guy does the next day weigh in, which I feel like is a way for them to just keep it going and say, hey, like next week.

Like, can we figure out a way to work this out where I can still be the IBF champion? It was such a mess. And like both sides, I believe truly that we're playing each other. and I just couldn't believe that Zufa wants to come in with Dana White, Nick Con kind of be the bullies of of boxing now. They could have really put their foot down and made a big time statement. And that guess what to be gangster. If you're going to be gangsters, be a gangster.

You know, like don't, don't, don't half, halfway it. Do you think it was because they didn't want to piss off Opitaya, like their prize sign? Because he's, if there's one person that's very clear about all this, it's Obataya on wanting to be undisputed. Poor guy is a boxer. They're not clear to him, apparently. Apparently the message is not clear to him, whether it's not going in the head or he's not being told.

And I think it's a combination of the two that I don't know if he understands really coming to Zufa means he cannot fight for these belts and he cannot be undisputed. Because, again, the messaging is very confusing. Dana said he's going to be able to fight for other belts, but now all of a sudden, IBF is out. So what do we do? We need clear-cut rules. And that's the thing, like this is a new organization. these guys are coming into a whole new sandbox, and they're trying to take over,

but they can't take over right away. And it's going to be an insidious buildup. So it's going to take time. So there are concessions being made. But in terms of if you're going to be the gangster big dog who rolls into town, be that guy and come into both barrels smoking. And we're not seeing that.

Because I feel bad for Apataya for Jai, because he doesn't seem to understand that this is for real. These belts are not going to be available to you anymore. You know, you've decided to fight for this new black BMF-looking belt, and that's your belt now. You're not going to be able to have a red belt and a green belt and a black belt. And there's not going to be any golden in your belts anymore.

You're going to have to fight for the black belt and the ring belt, of course. But yeah, it's, it's, I'm more and more, I'm feeling like Box. is high school. Between Dana White and Eddie Hearn having a love triangle or a love quadrangle at this point, stealing each other's girlfriends, you know, putting out events to shove at each other's faces and IBF and Zufa waiting to the last minute to make big scenes and to get more likes and clicks. It's very high school right now. And it doesn't seem like the way business is supposed to operate. But here we are. It's also a lot of. lot of egos, man. Power, disruption,

egos, like, IBM has been doing that thing for a while. They actually got in trouble a couple of years back with all sorts of stuff. Like WBC, they're all used to doing stuff their way. We get flown in. We get a hotel suite. We walk into the ring. Our belt gets shown off and we do this forever because this is what we're used to. This is how it is. Then Zufa comes in and says, no, no, no, we're trying to switch the whole game up. And then you're just power plays. Power plays, egos, and who's? suffers the fighter, Joe Bataya, who's not, I'm not going to say he's completely innocent because, you know, Chris, you can attest to this. Like, you're the boss. Like, you need to take control of your

damn career. Like, because he's looking kind of like foolish at times now. When he's up and there in the ring, and he's talking about, I want to be undisputed, and they're literally peeling a belt off of him that he's going to be stripped. He's got a Zoufa belt that means absolutely nothing. He's got a ring belt that he could potentially be stripped because he hasn't fought a top five opponent in the last two years. And he's talking about, I want to be undisputed. Like, at what point as a fighter do you need to start being like, okay, what are we doing here? Like, team. Why was there no question about that in the post-fight interview?

How do you feel about the belts? How do you feel about- I hope it's happening right now? Yeah, but like in the ring immediately after is when you're supposed to do it. Like, Max's job is to do that. Max had a clear agenda going into that ring. But that's, that is exactly my point. in. Why are, it's too obvious. You got to, you got to, you got to, you got to mass the agenda a little bit.

HBO didn't do that. You don't do that. That post-fight interview was something. I'm going to watch that again. Because that was like two, they were talking to walls. One guy had, one guy had, had a script to read, and it didn't matter what the other guy said. He's got to go through the script. He's got to hit every point in the script. And there was, that, that, that, nothing came out of that conversation at all. That's not the way it's supposed to be. And that is why there is a problem when it's all in one place. HBO was a network. There was there was there was there was the promotion who promoted the fight. They brought it to the network. The network aired it. The network would question the fighters afterwards and you would get some uncomfortable questions and answers because of that reason.

Larry Merchant, where are you? Oh my God. He would he would make guys so uncomfortable in fights. I would have been terrified to get interviewed by Larry Merchant at their fight. I just got punched on my skull. And this guy's going to ask me some hard-hitting questions. So grim. But that's the problem with this all-in-house situation. It becomes way too obvious that there is an agenda and there is a narrative and it has to be upheld. It's slimy. It doesn't feel good.

It's not the way it's supposed to be. We're not getting the truth. So I really, that was very disheartening for me. I really didn't like that interview. yeah no i really hated it because you're right it is disheartening because it's like opatatat i can't help but feel for him even though i just said how he should take his more control of his career and like you can't be that done like you're not dumb but you can't be that naive i should say because it's very clear you guys just want to go in there

fight let the managers do their things let the promoters do their things uh so you can go and focus on on just the fights and he's sitting in there just you know going through a grues of a a very tough fight, tough training can't. Listen, 12 rounds is tough. And what a guy like Linden, it's a tough night. I don't care how,

I don't care how many, how many rounds you won, that's a tough night. He's talking about, I want to be on the speed, I want to fight the best, I want to be the best. And then you have Max coming in there

with a legitimately, you are the best. You are the best. You're a corporation. Like you had it, like it's almost like he went to like, like he got a note from corporate, which is like pretty much what it was.

TKO. Like this is, this is it. Like we don't, No, no, no, like, that's the whole point. It's like, that's what they started saying at the beginning of the show, too. It's like, no, there's a lot of other champions out there, but this is the difference between us and the rest of them. It's like, we don't need a belt for you to know that Obatai is the best in the division.

Give me a break. There's other guys. There's other guys in here. Like, but he did, I will say this for Max. He did bring up Benavides and Zerto, because, I mean, those are the top, those are the top three right now. You have to encruzuate. You're not going to be a star otherwise. if you're not beating the tough, the best guys in the division,

every, every cruiserweight who has become a star, every cruiserweight who has gone on to the heavyweight division and actually become known, because no one knows cruiser weights, right? Every one of them who has gone up to heavyweight and become known, had to have fought really good fighters. Usik beat a bunch of really good fighters. Gaseev, you know, there was Dordercost was in there at that time. There were really good guys that were in there that were in that group,

that they all fought each other. And Usik was the guy who beat everybody. He beat Bradus as well. had a really tough fight with Bradis. So, you know, Evander, Dwight Mohamed Kwawe, those fights are amazing, goes up to heavyweight. For Opataya to be the star that he is destined to be, he's got to fight McKeleon, who's a titleist. That's the only reason he's being named because he is a titleist, otherwise we wouldn't really care about him. And then you got to fight the winner or maybe whoever stays at Cruzeweight after Zerto and Benevita.

I'm going to go on record. I think Benavides beats Zerto. Yeah, but I also, okay, I agree, but I also think that Benavitas will stay there if they can make the Opatia fight because you cannot depend on Bavall or better be of right now. True. That's a good point.

Because they're out doing their own thing, like they want to fight again in Russia with a whole different billionaire behind it. But I totally agree with what you're saying here. It's like in a division like cruiserweight. Yeah. You know, what he should do is fight Micklin at WBC. and obviously he's the IBF champion, Alpita, even if they strip him.

Go fight the WBC guy next and win that title or just win that fight. And then you're not technically unsputed, but like in the minds of everyone else, like you are. I think the only mind that matters. I think the only mind that matters is Jai. I don't know if Jai really. Yeah, but you know, like it's right, the fans will all understand. Like he just, like he still is the IBF. You got to beat those other champions, though.

Yeah, but I think he's got to fight them. I agree. Like Max saying, no, no, you're in dispute in our eyes. No, you're not. You got to beat those guys. That's a crazy line when there's two legit stars that are fighting in two months. And even if you're not a star, you've got to beat McEleon. You got to beat that guy.

He beat Batu Jack. He's a lineal champion. You got to beat that guy. There's a guy with a belt in your way class, and he beat the champion. It wasn't a vacant belt. He beat a champion. You have to beat that guy. Based on Alpetai's performance, do you think he can take on a Zerto and a Benavides?

So on performance alone, I think he would have a lot of trouble in both fights. But in terms of who he is, I think he would be favored in both. even the Benavides, which I think it was, again, I think Benavides is better than Zerto. I think they're going to have a hell of a fight, and they're going to tear each other limb from limb, and it's going to be a great fight because Zerdo is a dog. But I want to see, I want to see Opetia fight both of those guys, regardless of who wins. I think, because I can see how Zerda would give Opataya a lot of trouble. I've said that the last time I watched Zerda, but if you're going to feel Billiam Smith,

I go, man, I really want to see this Obataya fight because I see how the pressure and body punching and aggression. Because we saw aggression tonight made Obataya back up all night long. You know, he didn't, there was no time where Obataya was like, I'm the boss, I'm going to come forward, I'm going to back you up. He didn't do that tonight. He couldn't. Glantin was too strong.

So you got a guy like Zerto. You're not backing Zerto up either. How about Benavitas? And he throws a ton of punches. Same thing. Benevita is Zerdo, but better. He's just, he's similar, he's big. He throws way more punches.

I think he's way smarter with his. punches. I think he hits harder to the head, not to the body. Zerto's a very good body puncher. He's got a much better jab. Yeah, Zerto, Zerto, I think is just, I mean, excuse me, Benadipides is like Zerto 10-10. You know, like he's a better version of him, except he's not a Southball. So I think both guys would have a lot of success to Obataya. I think Obataya has to dig deep to win both those fights if he is to win both those fights, because he might not. I mean, you guys see it. You're not in disputed, dude. You got to beat those guys. Because I can see Zerto

beating Opataya. I'm not saying he would. But you got to beat that guy. If I don't see Zerto Opataya, there is no undisputed champion at Cruzeweight. Simple as that. You can't just declare you're undisputed. You have to beat the other guys in the weight class. There's a, McElion is a champion,

but there's Zerto and Benavides. It really is Zerto, because Benavides is coming up in wait. He's coming into the weight class. He kind of stole that, that fight from Opatia. That's the fight that need to happen. Is Obataya and Zerto. Because, listen, you ask me who are I think? Even if Benavides beats him?

If Benavides decides to stay at Cruzeweight, then you have to fight Benavides. But if Benavides jumps in... I think you're going to throw a ton of money at them. Absolutely. In which case, you got to fight that guy. You know, and now there's a new player in town. If this guy becomes a cruise weight and stays a cruise weight, you got a new player. Regardless, I think if Benavita wins, they're going to...

You can't be the guy. You cannot be undisputed if you don't fight everybody. That is what undisputed means. You're fighting the other champions. If you have other guys in your orbit who can say that they're champions in your weight class, you're not in disputed. I don't care what Max Kellerman says. You have to fight that guy.

I can't believe that. That interview is pissing me off more and more. And I see more people tweeting about it right now. Like Max has his own definition of undisputed. Okay. Go ask Zerto. Okay. Don't disrespect someone like Zerto who is a very good fighter and is a three division

world champion and has a title in this way class and has a stake to the claim of being the best cruise weight in the world. Because it's not like, it's not a foregone conclusion. Guys have to fight. That's why we fight. So yes, do I think Jayopataya is the best cruiser in the world? Yep, 100%. I do. But I got to see you fight Zerda Ramirez if you're going to say you're undisputed. Because I don't think, I don't even think Jai would say he's undisputed. I don't think he's no, he would say he's the man. He's talking about bells. He wants to fight the best in the world. He's talking about other fighters. He is a real champion. He's a warrior. He wants to fight the best. He wants to prove himself, which the only place you can prove yourself in boxing

is in the ring. So until he fights those guys, no, there is no Cruiserweight King. It's pretty cool that there's such good options, too. It's like, obviously said, Cruiserweight's a division that has never really had, like formidable stars. There's a reason why everyone, like, these guys leave it. It's a springboard to heavyweight. It's a light heavyweight has had a lot more prestige. Cruiserweight hasn't. But right now, Benavides, Zerto, Opataya, that's a damn good, like, you know, round robin right there. Because I do think if Benavitas should beat Zerto, right, would you, not 100%, but he should, but, like, I think he would. But at that point, I know, that's how it works, but, like, he's the favorite, and I think we all could say that, okay, if, if Benavides gets past Zerto,

Benavides can obviously go back down to light heavy, but I think that the ring, Zufa, that whole machine is going to throw a bunch of money at Benavitas. because they can make Benavides, Opataya, and that could be one of their big events, and then we're even closer to an undisputed champion or what we can even get close to these days for undisputed. Benevius is still PBC, no? Yeah, he's fighting on PBC. Good luck making that fight then.

I know, because that's a whole other mess right there. That's a whole other can of worms. It's so weird. You have your prized possession, your prized signing, Opataya. His message is so clear, undisputed. And then you have the promoter, no. This is under-hert. This is boxing in a nutshell. It's absolutely ridiculous to watch this play. It's absolutely, that's why I honestly almost, I was checked out this weekend of this IBF story, because I just had enough. Like, I just did not care enough to get in the middle of it.

who's right, who's wrong. It's just, I just want to watch fights. I got into this sport in media game to watch fights and react to them. Less and less. We're talking, less and less. Less and less we're talking about fights. We're talking about the high school drama that is surrounding the fights now. And you're doing these lives five days a week.

It's like, how often are you actually talking about fights? Very little. Oh, my God. 20%. 20%. 20% what other sport is that it's not getting better fighting man it's not it's uh yeah i mean it gives us plenty of content to talk about but the sport is healthier when we're talking about fights i think we should like i think we're

going to get big fights we're going to change the name of this this this podcast dan we're going to go inside litigation no no no we're going to go old school we're just going to go old school fights. We're going to go. Let's just talk about all. Okay. Look, what we should do, pretend? It's like 1999 and treat every week the week in 1999, like in the 90s. We're going to get ready for De La Jolla, Trinidad,

fight of the millennia. Shane Mosley is ripping through the lightweight division. Arturo Gotti is a star. Yeah, that's that. Imagine those things. Could you imagine if we were doing a show in the late 90s when Floyd was coming out of the amateurs, the Olympics, de Alohaia was at the height of his

of his powers. Arturo Gotti was knocking guys' heads off on boxing after dark. What a, what a time. ESPN Friday night fights. Mickey Ward was knocking guys out to deliver. Emmanuel Augustus was coming onto the scene. Come on. It's at its worst right now in terms of the pettiness and the business side.

I don't see it getting any better anytime soon, too. There will be good fights coming up. We do have much fights starting in like mid-March and then right into April. So I always hold out hope that, but the last couple of weeks have been brutal. Like, lawsuit. We're talking about lawsuits. We're talking about the virtual Golden Boy situation. We're talking about Zoof Road.

You were talking about going back to school for law. You're going to go to law school. I already am a lawyer. I went for eight years. I can do another eight. Yeah, but you got a liberal arts degree in eight years. It's a little different, Dan. A little different.

It's not going to end anytime soon either because we're talking more lawsuits. Dana White, as we speak, it's up there on the stage, talking about how he's going to sue the IBF. So add it on the docket. For what? Add it on the docket. Another lawsuit, baby. For what?

If you're a boxing lawyer? Yeah, you're making money right now. Pat English's of the world? There's like three of them. And they all use the same ones. If Alex Dombrough. If I could do it all again, I would have went to law school instead of pre-med.

Like I was going to go to the medical route, and I obviously decided not to. I was pre-med, and then I went, instead of taking the MCAT and going off to medical school. I decided to be a boxer. I should have gone to the law route. I probably would have made it to actually taking the LSATs and gone to law school and probably still could have fought. But yeah, I guess there's still time, right? I can go back to school. I got time. You can still go back. If we can do the podcast. That might be my retirement. All right, everyone. That is our episode. It is

late here on the East Coast. We'll have it out for you. We'll be back. We'll be back. on Thursday with more news, Inouye versus Nakatani. Like, come on. We got Inouye Nagatani. Talk about a fight. We got Inouye Nakatani. Got a decade a whole episode. No drama on Inouye.

Never drama right inouye. That guy is all business. I can't wait for that. MVP announces a deal with ESPN, which is bringing boxing back to ESPN. And we'll get into all that on Thursday's episode. We're going to keep her eyes also on all the nonsense that's going on with the belts. It's the Sixth Belt era. We're in the Sixth Belt era, baby.

That sounds bad. That sounds horrible. Keep your hands up at all times. Protect yourselves at all times. Say those DMs. We're out.