Despite beating champion Noel Mikaelian this past weekend in Las Vegas, Jai Opetaia is not the new owner of the WBC belt ahead of a highly anticipated clash with David Benavidez next year.
Opetaia became the first man to stop the Armenian on the undercard of Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn, but the WBC made the decision not to sanction the contest as Mikaelian was ignoring a mandatory order to face Benavidez.
The sanctioning body has instead upgraded interim titleholder Michal Cieslak to full champion, but he faces an extremely tough first defence against Benavidez later this year.
Though Opetaia did not leave Sin City with the green and gold belt, he has been ordered to face the winner of Cieslak-Benavidez, teeing up a fight that the pair have already verbally agreed to.
In its statement, the WBC said:
The WBC made numerous attempts and undertook countless efforts to bring all interested parties together toward reaching the necessary agreements to satisfy all requests proposed for sanctioning bouts compliant with the WBC Rules, orders, and rulings.
After communicating with all parties involved regarding the Noel Mikaelian v. Jai Opetaia bout, the WBC Board of Governors determined that among all available courses of action, the ones most compliant with the WBC’s prior orders are the following rulings and orders:
- Declare vacant the WBC Cruiserweight World Title
- Elevate WBC Interim Cruiserweight World Champion Michal Cieslak to WBC World Champion
- Confirm the WBC’s sanctioning of the mandatory defense of Champion Cieslak’s title against David Benavidez.
- Order that the winner of the Mikaelian v. Opetaia bout would become the Mandatory Contender of the division to fight next the winner of the upcoming bout between Cieslak and Benavidez.
Consistent with the WBC’s order set forth above, the winner of that bout must face next Jay Opetia, who won his bout last Saturday September 12 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Poland’s Cieslak has previously challenged for a world title twice against Ilunga Makabu and Lawrence Okolie but came up short on both occasions. His defence against Benavidez – who holds the WBO and WBA belts – is expected to be announced imminently.
