Jai Opetaia W12 Brandon Glanton... Zuffa Boxing returned to the Meta Apex in Las Vegas, where Jai Opetaia punished Brandon Glanton for twelve rounds to claim the inaugural Zuffa cruiserweight championship.  All three official scores were 119-106, and it should be considered a shutout, as Opetaia had a point deducted and Glanton had two  deducted by activist referee Allen Huggins. Opetaia (30-0) landed 250 punches to Glanton’s 118 over the course of the fight, and generally outclassed the game, but outgunned Glanton. Over the second half of the fight, Glanton (21-4) boxed with a sizable hematoma on his forehead. The fight ended a week of outside-the-ring turmoil that saw Opetaia stripped of the IBF championship because the IBF was unhappy with the way Zuffa promoted the show.

 

Opetaia’s first round was largely spent feinting and popping out his southpaw jab, while Glanton tried unsuccessfully to walk him down and force him against the ropes. By the third round, Opetaia was in his rhythm and connecting with solid shots. Glanton connected with a solid body shot as he briefly caught the Aussie against the ropes, but as the round entered the final 30 seconds, he hit Glanton with a big straight left that showed that he’d mastered the range. In the fourth, Glanton gamely kept walking forward and looking to hurt Opetaia to the body, but Opetaia set his sights and cracked him with two clean right hooks in quick succession.

 

It showed that Opetaia was starting to warm to his task, and in Round 5, he willingly met Glanton in the center of the ring and traded big shots with the American as the Australian took the fight into Glanton’s comfort zone and outstruck him at close quarters.

 

Referee Huggins opted to penalize Glanton for holding in round six as Opetaia’s pressure fighting continued to wear on Glanton, who simply had no answer to the Australian, whose accuracy and power were starting to mount up. Then things went from bad to worse for the Atlanta native two rounds later when he was docked another point for a low blow. That second point deduction appeared to light a fire under Glanton, who came barreling forward trying to land heavy shots. But Opetaia’s smart footwork and accurate counters ensured he maintained the upper hand heading into the closing stages of the fight.

 

After dominant ninth round, Opetaia loaded up in the tenth and connected with a succession of heavy shots as he repeatedly stung Glanton. But, to his great credit, Glanton took them well and stood strong. But in the eleventh round, frustrated Glanton threw Opetaia to the mat, drawing another stern warning from referee Huggins, who deducted a point from Opetaia moments later.

 

The action had gotten scrappy, and with an overly-officious referee intervening too frequently, the bout became a stop-start affair. But while the action was in progress, Opetaia was connecting freely, and he finished up the round with a beautifully slick four-punch combination.

 

After a gritty, scrappy clash, the action went into the final round and, as the bout entered the final minute, Opetaia connected with a huge straight left that froze Glanton. But remarkably, the Atlanta man’s chin held strong as he took the Aussie the distance.