Reports have surfaced that the IBF refused to grant Australian IBF & The Ring cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia an exception to defend his IBF title against Ellis Zorro after a combined appeal by at least three different promoters. This was because he couldn’t face his mandatory, Mairis Briedis. Despite reportedly having already arranged a fight with Briedis in February of next year, and Briedis being completely unavailable to fight due to an undisclosed injury, the IBF denied Opetaia the opportunity to defend his IBF title on Saturday, December 23, prompting Opetaia to vacate his IBF cruiserweight title.

To clarify this current issue, we need to visit the past to understand the full context of the current situation. Jai Opetaia (23-0, 18 KO’s) suffered a broken jaw on July 2nd, 2022 in his win over Mairis Briedis (28-2, 20 KO’s), where he captured the IBF and The Ring cruiserweight titles.

Due to his injury, Opetaia stayed out of the ring for a lengthy period and failed to find any opponents when both Mateusz Masternak (47-6, 31 KO’s) and Richard Riakporhe (17-0, 13 KO’s), with whom his team had negotiated, eventually pulled out of the purse bids involving these potential match-ups. British contender Jordan Thompson (15-1,12 KO’s), ranked in the top 10 of the IBF cruiserweight rankings, was eventually found as an opponent and was subsequently defeated on September 30th.

Prior to facing Thompson, the IBF assigned Mairis Briedis as the mandatory contender in August. However, due to an injury, Briedis was unable to fight, leading to the choice of Jordan Thompson. Opetaia was given an exemption to face Thompson due to the circumstances surrounding Briedis’ injury.

While Briedis’ injury status has not been fully divulged, it has been understood that he was not able to fight this year, which led Jai Opetaia to pick Ellis Zorro (17-0, 7 KO’s) for his December 23 fight on a massive blockbuster card funded by Saudi Arabia’s Turki Al-Sheikh.

Due to Briedis’ injury, Opetaia was left with no option but to stay busy, and he received a unique opportunity to feature on the ‘Day of Reckoning’ December 23 card, which involves the collaboration of several promotions and their fighters. The promoters involved on the card sought to appeal the IBF’s decision to strip Opetaia of his IBF cruiserweight title for facing Ellis Zorro rather than an injured Briedis, but the IBF reportedly rejected the appeal.

The promotions that have been identified are Matchroom Boxing―who currently co-promotes Opetaia, Queensberry Promotions and Wasserman Boxing.

This situation is confounded with more drama as it has been additionally revealed that Opetaia has already negotiated a fight with Briedis in February of next year, who even agreed to step aside to allow Opetaia to face Zorro. Yet, the IBF, knowing of this potential match-up and Briedis’ injury, rejected the appeal from the combined promotions.

The IBF is now in hot water for their decision, seemingly not comprehending that Mairis Briedis’ injury made it impossible for Jai Opetaia to face him following the IBF’s decision to appoint Briedis as the mandatory challenger. Additionally, the IBF ignored that the opponents they had ordered for Opetaia to defend against, Masternak and Riakporhe, both neglected to face Opetaia.

As such, Opetaia had virtually no other choice but to fight in a voluntary defense, choosing Ellis Zorro, who is not ranked high enough at the IBF. Given two fighters had already opted not to face Opetaia, it can safely be assumed that Zorro was the only available opponent for Opetaia to face in the near future.

However, the IBF maintained recently that they already gave Opetaia an exemption to face Thompson in a voluntary defense. Thus, they could not grant another exemption to Opetaia as he was not able to face his mandatory challenger Briedis.

In light of the IBF’s rejection of this appeal, Opetaia has now decided to vacate his IBF title, which the IBF had already announced would be forcibly relinquished if he chose to fight Ellis Zorro. The IBF’s handling of this situation shows extreme incompetence and inconsistency given there have been other IBF champions who held on to their title for years without being relinquished for not fighting their mandatory.

Former unified welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr, for example, went as long as four years without facing a mandatory challenger after he defeated Carlos Ocampo in 2018, who had been his first and only mandatory. Unified super welterweight champion Jermell Charlo never fought his IBF mandatory, and he ironically vacated his IBF title recently after finally being ordered to fight Bakhram Murtazaliev, who had been the mandatory challenger to Charlo for years―before Charlo even attained the IBF super welterweight title.

The IBF’s fault in this matter is unquestionable, having shown clear favoritism towards other fighters, refusing to acknowledge the two fighters they ordered for Opetaia to face in two separate mandates—Riakporhe and Masternak, who would then be the mandatory challengers—pulled out of meeting Opetaia in a title bout, and seemingly not understanding Briedis’ injury status left Opetaia with no opponents to fight.

Now with details emerging that Mairis Briedis is set to face Opetaia in February, the IBF looks even more unhinged due to their refusal to grant Jai Opetaia an exemption to defend his title against Ellis Zorro.

The extreme corruption, ignorance, or both on display by the IBF has clearly now become a problem as one of the cruiserweight division’s best fighters is no longer able to enjoy his status as the IBF champion due to several mistakes they made and refuse to be held accountable for.

Opetaia will still be featured on the Saudi-sponsored December 23 card, but his IBF title will no longer be defended against Zorro. The Ring lineal cruiserweight title, currently held by Opetaia, will still be defended by the Australian.

It is unknown whether the IBF will now decide to make the title available for Opetaia’s reported February fight with Briedis, but given how the sanctioning body has handled this matter, it might serve Opetaia well to look for better pastures and seek to become a world champion at another sanctioning body, as the IBF is not equipped to handle these sorts of matters, as has clearly shown to be the case.