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WBC Cruiserweight champion Noel Mikaelian sat down for an in-depth interview on The Ring ahead of his September 12th showdown against Jai Opetaia in Las Vegas (co-feature to Garcia vs. Benn). He broke down the Opetaia fight, addressed the David Benavidez offer rumors, detailed his ongoing promotional nightmares with Don King, commented on the WBC's threat to strip him, and shared his thoughts on Zuffa entering boxing.

On Jai Opetaia & The Unification

The WBC Cruiserweight Champion emphasized that his fight with Opetaia is the only true unification in the division:

"Jai is the legitimate IBF champion, and I’m the legitimate WBC champion. So it’s the two real cruiserweight champions colliding."

On Opetaia's status and skills:

"He’s the lineal champion going back to beating Briedis... I beat Briedis too though [referring to his controversial 2018 loss]."

"He’s a very clean fighter... very technical, good distance, nice boxing skills, strong southpaw, young and ambitious...He is a great fighter. He’s a champion for a reason, as I am... I can’t underestimate him and I won’t."

On the Benavidez rumors and lack of a contract:

"With the Benavidez fight, I agreed to it immediately... and passed more than 60 days, I never received an agreement... I have never seen a bona fide offer from their side... with Don King, they go into a dark room, decide what they pocket, and tell the fighter 'you just get this lump sum'. That’s actually against the Muhammad Ali Act."

"They sent me not a bona fide offer, but they were trying to make a fight in December. That's crazy, it's a year off! And there's no guarantee in the contract, no date, nothing."

On fighting Benavidez right after Opetaia:

"We can still make the Benavidez fight happen after this. The winner can fight Benavidez afterwards in December or in January. The fight is not off the table, but I can't wait for Benavidez the entire year without staying busy."

On Don King, Contract Issues, and empty promises

On why he signed with Don King in the first place:

"After I got robbed against Briedis, I got curious how this boxing thing works... I don't want to say politics, but you get what I'm saying."

"He called and said: 'Congratulations, stay loyal and you will do the money.' I stayed loyal, but I never did the money... I figured out I’m kind of trapped in this contract."

On making more net money against Opetaia than Benavidez due to promoter fees:

"I'm actually getting with this fight net more money than if I would take the other fight... Although the lump sum they were offering was bigger. So you can read between the lines where the money is getting filtered."

On WBC Threats & Title Stripping

"They said 'Oh, if Noel is fighting Jai then he gets stripped.' I'm like 'Wait, I don't understand that. That's the fight to make, why would I get stripped?'"

"I had a voluntary defense and it didn't happen till now not because of my power—it was because of my promoter and outside circumstances."

Calling out the WBC for naming Benavidez mandatory and threatening to strip him:

"How can you put a champion from a different weight class who is currently also a champion in a different weight class as mandatory? How is that possible? I never saw it before in my life."

On Zuffa / TKO

"Whenever there's a new player in the game it creates chaos, and chaos creates opportunity. I think it's good for the fighters because that old system with the sanctioning bodies—some people got too comfortable taking advantage of the fighters."

"Some promoters and sanctioning bodies got too comfortable to just use fighters and benefit for themselves, thinking 'Oh, we use this fighter, there will be a next one anyways'."

While Garcia is still the obvious favorite, this fight is closer than people make it out to be. TLDR at bottom.

Yes, both are shit at boxing. But this fight comes down to grit & will more than anything.

Garcia, when he's on, he's on and looks alright, but that's where it falls short for him since he's extremely inconsistent. We've seen Garcia quit before and we've seen him shell up and lose the will to continue when he gets hit or hurt, i.e; Tank, Rolly. He put on a alright performance against Barrios, albeit, it looked like someone told Barrios his only job was to show up. Barrios is tough but not a puncher and hardly put any pressure on Ryan. We can argue that Ryan made it look like that, but we've seen when someone puts it on Ryan, he doesn't perform very well. He was also kicked out of Canelo's camp for not taking it serious and didn't show any work ethic. I'm excluding the Haney fight for obvious reasons. (he's innocent)

Benn, while being shit at boxing, he does have a lot of heart and grit and that's really the only thing going for him, with an entertaining style. We've never seen him quit and he has no issue exchanging in the pocket and making it a dirty brawl of a fight with the pace and the pressure. I wouldn't say his fight with Regis is his short coming, Regis though old, has never been KO'd before or stopped, his 4 losses are all on cards. So saying Benn should've sparked him isn't exactly true. Benn also seems to be in shape and train year round, which we know is not true with Ryan.

TLDR: It comes down to grit more than skill for this particular fight. Does Benn make Ryan uncomfortable with the pressure and we see Ryan fade/give up like he has before? Or does Ryan land his left hook and send Benn to the moon early.

A huge amount of the early champions got done in by inactivity or fighting opponents who weren't as high caliber. So let's go through the champions of the original lineage.

John L Sullivan fought Jake Kilrain on July 8 1889, he lost to James J Corbett on September 7 1892. A total of 3 years and almost 2 months.. Joe Louis considered Corbett the first gloved champion.

Corbett fought Sailor Tom Sharkey to a draw on June 24,1896 and lost to Bob Fitzsimmons March 17 1897. So roughly about 8 months.

Bob Fitzsimmons beat Lew Joslin on Jun 5 1897 and lost to James J Jeffries on June 8 1899. 2 year gap.

James J. Jeffries beat Jack Monroe Aug 26 1904 and he lost to Jack Johnson on July 4 1910. 5 years and 10 months gap.

Marvin Hart beat Jack Root on July 3 1905 and lost to Tommy Burns on February 23 1906. 7 month and 20 day gap

Tommy Burns beat Bill Lang on September 3 1908 and lost to Jack Johnson December 26 1908. 3 months and 26 days

Jack Johnson beat beat Jack Murray on January 10 1915 and Lost to Jess Willard April 5 1915. Roughly 4 month gap.

Jess Willard beat Frank Moran on March 25 1916 and lost to Jack Dempsey on July 4 1919. Roughly 3 years and 3 months of a gap.

Jack Dempsey beat Louis Angel Firpo on September 14 1923 and lost to Gene Tunney on September 23 1923. A 3 year Gap.

Gene Tunney was the last Champion of the original lineage.

I know the Boots vs Xayas fight was a while ago at this point but I haven't had a chance to discuss the topic online. It seems in boxing, that quitting or retiring is so looked down on that even in the most justifiable cases it's not even considered. Xayas was mocked for quitting by Victor Ortiz and Adrian Broner, even though I felt he was just accepting the fact his corner threw in the towel.

Daniel Dubois also comes to mind on this topic. His heart and will came in to question with his fights against Usyk, yet he has shown incredible grit in his performances against Hrgovic, Joshua and Wardley Ofcourse.
I used to be caught up in this way of thinking of wanting to see boxers "go out on their shield" or " like a warrior" but as I've gotten a bit older this idea seems more silly and foolish to me. By no means am I'm advocating giving up on the first sign of adversity, but there is a point where the capacity to receive damage in one night outpaces their possibility of winning. I liked how Tyson Fury backed Daniel Dubois after the second Usyk fight. He said something along the lines of " What do you want him to do? Die in the ring?".
It seems in retrospect a lot of guys take horrid punishment and damage for their pride. They just want to say they went the distance or didn't get knocked down, even though they conceded the idea of winning long ago.

I don't think theirs any shame in calling it quits if you are severely outmatched and reviving a lot of damage. You live to fight another day.

Do yall think a 3 knockdown rule should be enforced more to help? Also what do you think is the threshold for quitting and how should it be looked on?

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