Jai Opetaia has signed up with Zuffa Boxing, Dana White’s new league, but he’s still talking about the same thing he’s talked about for years: becoming the undisputed cruiserweight champion. The Australian–based IBF titleholder joined Zuffa in January 2026, slotting in as one of the promotion’s first big names as it tries to build its own title system alongside the traditional alphabet belts. Even as Zuffa leans on him to launch its brand, Opetaia has made it clear that he doesn’t see this move as a shortcut away from the old‑school path to undisputed status.
“Undisputed. Don’t take your mind off undisputed. We’re chasing unification fights. If we don’t get one by the end of the year, I’ll be very f***ing disappointed. Undisputed. When you think of me, you think, ‘Bro, he wants to be undisputed.’ That’s it. I’m not worried about anyone else. I don’t chase names. I don’t even care if it was Zurdo or if it was Benavidez or if it was back when it was Billam-Smith. I actually respect these dudes. I think they’re great fighters. I think they’re great world champions.”
Source: RG.org
The Zuffa Boxing deal
Zuffa Boxing announced Opetaia’s signing as a headline get, bringing in a reigning world champion months after White left the UFC and turned his focus toward boxing. The promotion is branding its cruiserweight title as a new belt at 200 pounds, with Opetaia set to fight Brandon Glanton for the inaugural Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight championship on March 8 in Las Vegas. That fight is meant to feel like a real step, not a hype‑only exhibition—both a showcase for the league and a meaningful checkpoint in Opetaia’s next run.
Opetaia has said his manager is still calling the main shots on his long‑term career, and that unification fights and cross‑system bouts are still in the plan. He’s also stayed low‑key about money, arguing that pay usually follows wins, not the other way around.
Opetaia is walking into this Zuffa chapter already holding the IBF cruiserweight belt and the Ring magazine lineal title, which gives him a real platform in the division. Before signing with Dana White’s group he had talked about unifying the weight class by adding the WBA, WBC, and WBO belts, and that storyline hasn’t vanished with the new deal. He’s mentioned names like WBC titleholder Noel Mikalian and former WBA/WBO champion Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez as the kind of fighters he wants to line up in the years ahead.
Zuffa’s model doesn’t slot neatly into the traditional four‑belt system, which makes the legalistic path to an undisputed crown a bit messier than it would be under a classic boxing‑commission setup. But Opetaia insists his signing doesn’t close the door on those fights, and he expects to be able to chase outside belts while still carrying the Zuffa title. In that sense he’s a test case: if Zuffa can let him move between its belt and the established championships, it starts to look less like a rival universe and more like another layer on top of the normal boxing map.
For now the story is simple: Jai Opetaia is still the IBF and lineal cruiserweight champion, he’s locked in with Zuffa Boxing, and he’s publicly betting that he can chase the undisputed crown while building something new at the same time. His first fight for the Zuffa Boxing cruiserweight title is set for March 8 and will tell everyone a lot about how well these two worlds can actually share the same ring.
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