Oscar De La Hoya: Nobody wants ‘piece of sh*t’ Zuffa Boxing title

Zuffa Boxing once again finds itself under attack by Oscar De La Hoya.

This week, De La Hoya, former boxing champion turned promoter, themed his famous “Clap Back Thursday” series around Zuffa Boxing launch of their championship belts, and the promotion’s handling of Jai Opetaia’s cruiserweight title fight against Brandon Glanton. Opetaia was supposed to defend his IBF cruiserweight title on Sunday. However, two days before the fight, the sanctioning body pulled their belt and threatened to strip Opetaia after the boxer revealed that his IBF belt would be on the line in his Zuffa Boxing title fight.

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“Jai Opetaia fought over the weekend, for what he thought would be an IBF title, only to find out at the press conference, that he was lied to by none other than Uncle f-ckin’ Fester (Dana White) and Zuffa,” De La Hoya said on Instagram.

The IBF claims that Opetaia’s team said the Zuffa Boxing title bout was only a “trophy or token of recognition,” and that a title unification bout would not be taking place – which would be a violation of IBF’s Rule 5.H. “We all know that the Zuffa belt is like a participation trophy that’s given to a nine-year-old at the end of a soccer game,” De La Hoya said. “It has the significance of a hemorrhoid on my f*ckin’ ass. That’s all they agreed it would be in order for IBF to participate in the Opetaia fight, until last week at the press conference, when Fester (White) and his friends surprised everyone and announced the Zuffa belt as a world title belt. These motherf*ckers violated rule No. 5 of the IBF. After that, the sanction was pulled. Zuffa had no intention of following the IBF rules and used that deception to humiliate them. So they said, ‘F*ck this,’ and they pulled out. Zuffa lied to everyone the entire time and poor Jai Opetaia suffered because of it.”

Opetaia’s fight carried on, and he ended up beating Glanton in a unanimous decision at Zuffa Boxing 04. Because of IBF’s actions, Opetaia’s bout with Glanton was not an official IBF title fight.

“Instead of fighting for a belt that he loves, Jai was stuck fighting for absolutely nothing against a guy who had zero championship experience, and Jai was obviously disappointed when he spoke to Max ‘tampon’ (Kellerman) after the fight,” De La Hoya said. “Of course he wants to fight for all the belts, all the fighters do. Nobody wants to fight for the piece of sh*t Zuffa belt they are trying to push on us. And fighters want to fight the very best in the world. His opponent, Brandon Glanton, was a plant by The Ring who ranked him No. 10 in the world in their made-up rankings. He had never even fought a championship round in his entire life. He was ranked No. 15 by the IBF.”

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On Tuesday, the IBF said that Opetaia has yet to be officially stripped, and that the situation “remains in deliberation.” White claimed at the Zuffa Boxing 04 post-fight press conference that all parties were on the same page ahead of the fight and that the IBF deliberately planned to pull their belt, potentially setting up a lawsuit in favor of Opetaia and Zuffa Boxing.

De La Hoya sees that as a bad idea.

“Jai, wake up before they ruin your career, brother,” De La Hoya said. “Fester (White) is using you as a tool in all of this. Get the f*ck out of there. All these guys do is lie. And Fester why are you making him sue the organizations? Because you’re throwing a tantrum because they wont recognize your fake belts? You’re the one who said you would never recognize all of them about a year ago.”