Jai Opetaia's Team Respond to WBC Ordering Benavidez vs Mikaelian

Opetaia has been in limbo since announcing his shock move to Zuffa Boxing

Jai Opetaia | IMAGO / AAP

Jai Opetaia's team has scorned the WBC for their decision to order Noel Mikaelian to fight David Benavidez amid rumors of Opetaia fighting the Armenian-German Champion.

The pair looked set to fight for Opetaia's Ring Magazine belt later this year after facing off at Zuffa Boxing's debut event earlier this year. But only hours later, the WBC intervened and said Mikaelian had to face his mandatory challenger, David Benavidez, next, or he would be stripped.

The Aussie is all too familiar with this after being stripped of his IBF belt following his signing to Dana White's rebel organization.

David Benavidez (center) with his WBC title after his unanimous decision win over Oleksandr Gvozdyk. | IMAGO/ZUMA Press Wire

Benavidez is the WBC light heavyweight champion and WBA and WBO cruiserweight champion, but it is an unusual move for the WBC to call a mandatory challenger from a different weight class or a champion from a different sanctioning body. However, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has had his say.

"The WBC order is Mikaelian against Benavidez. That’s it. If he takes another fight, he is relinquishing his obligations with the WBC,” Sulaiman told BoxingScene.

Mick Francis responds to the WBC

Mikaelian only claimed his title in December of last year by beating Badou Jack in a rematch. Opetaia's manager, Mick Francis, was bemused by the decision in what looks like a move against Zuffa boxing by the WBC, similar to the IBF, but he remains confident of being able to make the fight.

"How can a sanctioning body order a mandatory with a champion from another body? It’s never happened before," Francis told AAP. "We’ve been in really good conversations and he wants to fight Jai, he’d rather fight Jai, feels it’s a better opportunity to win, which I find crazy.

“So I can’t see that (Benavidez) fight happening any time soon. If the WBC is enforced, Noel will most likely vacate and still fight Jai for the Ring Magazine."

Opetaia and Benavidez had seemed on a collision course after Benavidez beat Gilberto 'Zurdo' Ramirez to become unified champion. Now, with the politics surrounding the sanctioning bodies and Zuffa Boxing, it seems increasingly unlikely.

The pressure is on Opetaia to get a fight in the schedule soon, however, or he risks having his Ring Magazine belt stripped as well. Under their rules, a champion must fight a fighter in the top five of their rankings every two years or they will relinquish the title. Francis said the organization would not strip Opetaia as long as they continued to pursue a fight with someone in the top five, but the clock is ticking.