- Benavidez says the Opetaia 'ship has kinda sailed' because the IBF stripped the Australian — calls it the 'Zuffa belt'
- Jose Benavidez Sr puts the timeline at two-to-three years — a brazen attempt to clear the calendar for Bivol money
- Opetaia is the only credible cruiserweight on the planet who beats Benavidez — and the Mexican Monster knows it
Right then — Sunday morning, the dust is settling on the Cinco de Mayo Vegas night, and the camp of the freshly-crowned WBA and WBO cruiserweight champion has come out swinging. Not at Jai Opetaia. At the very idea of fighting Jai Opetaia. David Benavidez told The Ring that the Opetaia "ship has kinda sailed" because the Australian no longer holds the IBF strap, asking what the pair would even fight for — "the Zuffa belt?" — and his father Jose Benavidez Sr put the timeline at two, possibly three years away.
Let's not beat around the bush. That's an attempt to take the most-asked-for fight in the cruiserweight division and shove it into the bottom of a drawer. The bookies had a Benavidez–Opetaia unification at 6/4 to be made before the end of 2026 the moment the final bell sounded last night. By Sunday lunchtime that line had been pulled. The Benavidez camp move, brazen as it is, has done its job — at least for the next forty-eight hours.
The 'Stripped Belt' Argument Doesn't Hold
Here's the bit I can't get past. Opetaia is the lineal best cruiserweight on the planet. He held the IBF for nearly four years, made five defences against the proper names in the division, didn't lose a round in three of them. The fact that the IBF have stripped him over a sanctioning fee dispute tied to his Zuffa Boxing move doesn't change one molecule of his ranking by anyone with eyes. Calling the WBO–WBA–IBF undisputed conversation that was alive on Friday morning a "Zuffa belt" sneer on Sunday morning is the kind of move you make when you genuinely don't fancy the assignment.
And the IBF mandatory situation is far from settled. The IBF have not yet sanctioned a vacant title bout. The most likely route is for Opetaia to box one of Ryan Rozicki or the winner of an upcoming eliminator and reclaim the IBF, at which point the "ship has sailed" argument collapses overnight. Benavidez Sr knows this. Benavidez Jr knows this. The line they're running this week is timing-of-narrative, not facts-of-the-division.
What's Really Going On — The Bivol Money Lane
Make no mistake, the real reason Benavidez wants Opetaia parked for two years is because the only way the Mexican Monster gets the Dmitry Bivol light heavyweight super-fight, the one with proper Saudi numbers attached to it, is by keeping the calendar clear and the ranking position unblemished. Opetaia is the one cruiserweight on the planet who can beat him. A loss in a unification fight in October would torch the Bivol negotiations stone dead. A loss to Opetaia would also reset the entire P4P conversation that the win over Ramirez just bought him.
So the play is — push Opetaia back, take a "voluntary" defence in October against a manageable WBC mandatory or a WBA challenger, then pivot to Bivol in March or April of 2027 at 175 with the Bivol IBO/Ring strap on offer for some absurd Riyadh purse. That's the route. Opetaia is the obstacle. Hence the Sunday-morning briefing.
Where Opetaia Goes From Here
What I'd say to Opetaia's camp is this — don't waste oxygen replying to it. The Benavidez move is to bait you into a back-and-forth that lets him spend the summer talking about Bivol while you spin in the wind. Take the IBF eliminator. Win it inside the distance. Get the belt back on your shoulder by July. At that point the "Zuffa belt" line evaporates, the unification market reopens, and the public pressure on the Benavidez camp ramps up to a level even Sampson Lewkowicz can't talk away.
Three months. That's all Opetaia needs to flip this. And while we're at it — Turki Alalshikh and Hearn both want the unification fight made for Riyadh on the Diriyah Season opener in late 2026. The money is there. The audience is there. The fight is there. The only thing standing in the way is the Benavidez camp's preference for Bivol money in 2027 over Opetaia risk in 2026. Boxing fans can spot that play from a mile off.
The Pick I'm Making — Locked Now
If the fight does get made — and I still think it gets made, just on a slower fuse than fans want — Opetaia knocks Benavidez out somewhere between rounds seven and ten. Levels at cruiserweight. Benavidez carries 200 well, the work over Ramirez proved that, but he carries it like a 168-pounder who's added muscle, not like a born cruiserweight. Opetaia has the in-and-out feet, the southpaw left hand and the chin that's never wobbled inside the distance. Pick is Opetaia, stoppage, second half. Lock it in. Hold me to it.
One last thing. Benavidez Sr's line about "two, three years" is the same line we heard from the Loma camp about Tank Davis in 2019, from the Errol Spence camp about Crawford in 2020, and from the Canelo camp about Charlo for two full years. In every case, the fight either eventually happened on the smaller side's terms — or didn't happen at all and both names left money on the table. Boxing doesn't owe Opetaia a fight. But the cruiserweight division does. Make it.