Two men, one fight, and a pile of legal letters
Jai Opetaia has twelve rounds to box on Saturday. He has spent the week being asked about lawyers.
The Australian defends his Zuffa Boxing and Ring Magazine cruiserweight titles against Noel Mikaelian, and the build-up has been swallowed by everything happening away from the ring. First the WBC warned Mikaelian he could lose his cruiserweight belt for taking this fight rather than completing a mandatory defence against David Benavidez. That decision can be made official the moment he walks to the ring.
Then came Don King. The promoter filed a cease-and-desist claiming exclusive promotional rights over Mikaelian, which in his reading makes the bout a breach of contract. Dana White, who founded and runs Zuffa Boxing, said on Tuesday that the fight goes ahead and that the contracts are in order.
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Mikaelian saw it coming
The Armenian was not surprised by any of it. “I didn’t know when it was going to come, but we were expecting it,” he said at Wednesday’s media day. “At the end I have to deal with the situation, and it is what it is at this point.”
He has decided to treat the whole thing as background hum. “It’s just noise,” Mikaelian said. “I try to be focused on my fight on Saturday, and everybody has to do what they have to do. It’s not in my power what Don King does. I have my contract, and if he tries to block this fight, it’s on him. It’s not in my power.”
He added that his camp had checked the legal side and acted in good faith, and that he is ready to go.
Opetaia has stopped pretending to care
The champion’s patience is thinner. Every interview about the fight, he says, turns into an interview about sanctioning bodies and court cases.
“We have a job to do. We’re here to win a fight, and we haven’t lost track of what we’re here to do,” Opetaia said. “That’s the only thing I’m thinking of.”
Ask him how the dispute ends and he shrugs it off. “I got no clue, man. It is my job to win the fight whether these sanctioning bodies jump on board or not. What a circus. What an absolute circus.”
The sanctioning question will still be sitting there on Sunday morning, whoever has the belts.
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