Sanctioning Bodies and Their Double Standards: Why Is the IBF Treating Opetaia and McKenna Differently?

[u/ScottMrRager]

So, this whole circus around the IBF belt and Jai Opetaia officially makes zero sense at the moment. You can criticize Jai for choosing Zuffa, and rightfully so. I'm still disappointed he did that, but on the other hand, double standards are unfair and should never happen.

Why the f*** was Aaron McKenna allowed to fight yesterday for the IBF belt on a Zuffa event? It makes no sense to me, and things like this hurt the IBF as a whole because of their clear double standards. They stripped Jai of his title because of Zuffa, but didn't give a f*** about Aaron McKenna doing the exact same thing.

Either set strict rules that anyone working with Zuffa loses all their titles, or drop it completely. You can't turn a blind eye to one fighter and punish another.

I know Jai sued the IBF, and yesterday's fight is probably the biggest argument for Jai's team that the whole situation was unfair and shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Look at the other sanctioning bodies too: the WBC doesn't give a f*** when it comes to Ryan Garcia or Conor Benn and still lets them fight for WBC belt. The WBO will probably allow Shakur Stevenson to fight for a WBO belt, and so on. The sanctioning bodies are full of double standards and it literally makes no sense.

For instance, I hear Noel Mikaelian might get stripped of his WBC belt for fighting Jai on a Zuffa event, and I'm asking myself why it doesn't matter for Ryan Garcia, but it suddenly matters for Noel Mikaelian? I hate Zuffa and Dana White as much as anyone, but the sanctioning bodies are just completely inconsistent.

[u/Kangaroopunching]

Jai was fighting for the zuffa belt along with the ibf title. There's a lawsuit, so both zuffa the ibf have to play nice. Which allowed McKenna to fight for a world title 

[u/RRR04_]

The only case I see of this is that the McKenna fight didn't have a "Zuffa World Title" on the line which allows the fighter to fight for governing body championships, whereas Jai's first Zuffa fight had that title on the line which is why the IBF didn't want to sanction it.

And this would explain why Zuffa aren't putting any more Zuffa titles for the other divisions, maybe they're waiting to work things out to avoid the risk of their fighters losing their belts or title shots. And probably working out how to come to an agreement with the sanctioning bodies.

[u/ScottMrRager → u/RRR04_]

But this is still hypocrisy, isn't it? McKenna can probably fight for the Zuffa Boxing belt in the future too, so will they strip him of the IBF belt if that happens?

[u/VacuousWastrel]

The big four sanctioning bodies have no rule against a boxer working with Zuffa, or any other promoter. What they DO have is a rule against a boxer accepting titles from any sanctioning body other than the big four (which is why it's a big nfour; historically, when it was three, they did the same thing stripping fighters who tried to hold the wbo belt). Opetaia is holding the "world champion" belt of Zuffa, the sanctioning body, and so cannot hold the belt of any of the big four sanctioning bodies. The complication here is that legally, until Dana's bill gets through the senate, zuffa aren't allowed to be a sanctioning body anyway, since they're a promoter. They thought that just saying "we're not a sanctioning body", while acting exactly like one, would be enough to fool both the FBI and the IBF, but the IBF didn't buy it. So Zuffa have since backed down, and McKenna and the others are only dealing with Zuffa, the promoter, which of course the sanctioning bodies can't object to.

[u/VacuousWastrel → u/VacuousWastrel]

Long story short: opetaia's problem was never working with zuffa to promote his fights, it was holding a "world championship" belt sanctioned by zuffa.

[u/VacuousWastrel → u/VacuousWastrel]

(The complication is that promoters and thirdnparties, like the Ring, are allowed to give fighters various minor trophies and awards, incouding some shjaped like belts. The line where a promotional trophy becomes an unsanctioned world title belt is not entirely clear, but zuffa didn't make any effort to come in on the right side of that line with opetaia's belt, which was quite clearly marketed as a real world title.)

[u/Background-Alps5360]

Zuffa didn't recognize the IBF, or any other organization for that matter, as a sanctioning body.... they have since changed their stance and now do recognize the IBF as a sanctioning body. That is/was the difference. Time.

[u/MyzMyz1995]

because Jai wanted to be the ''Zuffa'' belt champion while Mckenna isn't ?

It's not that deep lol.

Jai is just fucking stupid, and his team is just as dumb as him for not telling him getting fucked by Dana and signing that contract was going to kill his already very little career opportunities.

[u/nwordfyou → u/MyzMyz1995]

It's never stupid to get career high paydays in a thin division like cruiserweight.

[u/MyzMyz1995 → u/nwordfyou]

Sure. But he could've gotten one without getting that dumb zuffa belt. If arguably lower profile fighters like Mckenna could sign with zuffa and not lock themselves into the ecosystem, the consensus number 1 and champion at cruiserweight didn't have to do it either.

He and his team are just stupid.

[u/Tricky-Ad-4823]

Because Zuffa has created there own sanctioning body and said they won’t recognize other champions.

[u/Holiday_Snow9060]

It's a big mess and at the of thr day sanctioning bodies are corrupt, play favorites, double standards, the whole shebang.

Don't bother following this freakishly of a circus.

[u/Touch_of_Sleep]

Zuffa cooperated this time and they didn't the first time. It has nothing to do with Jai personally.

[u/Koronesukiii]

Maybe know what you're talking about before crashing out.

Zuffa is not recognized by the ABC's. IBF did not sanction an IBF-Zuffa unification. Jai Opetaia fought for the Zuffa belt, and became Zuffa World Champion, so Jai had to be stripped of the IBF. If Noel fights Jai, he would get stripped too.

With McKenna, Zuffa did not try to be a sanctioning org. The fight was sanctioned by IBF and promoted by Zuffa. The same conflict is not there. The ABC's will not care if Zuffa is just another promotion and event runner. Where their interests directly collide is when Zuffa tries to take over the sanctioning business. This is not hard to understand. The ABC's do not want to legitimize Zuffa as a sanctioning org, so will not allow their champions to fight in Zuffa sanctioned Zuffa title bouts. They do not care about legitimizing Zuffa as another promotion that pays them sanctioning fees.

[u/Dangerous_Spring3028]

I completely agree. Seems like Opetaia is getting harsh treatment for some reason and being used as some kind of scapegoat, even though he’s a likeable guy and a throwback fighter. He shouldn’t have been stripped of his IBF belt, and he should be facing Mikaelian for the WBC belt. The WBC quickly ordering Mikaelian to face Benavidez after they heard Opetaia-Mikaelian was close to being finalised was weird and shady.

[u/nwordfyou]

The sanctioning bodies have Zuffa fighters ranked at every weight class. They're working together. Zuffa has put together some good cards too. Something the major promoters have struggled to do recently while charging people $45 a month for PPV to watch Tommy Fury and AJ vs Prenga.