Hours after Jai Opetaia said he would defend his IBF cruiserweight title against Brandon Glanton on Sunday while also fighting for the inaugural Zuffa Boxing Championship, the IBF announced it will no longer sanction title defenses.

In a Friday evening statement, the IBF said it had withdrawn sanction for the fight after being misled that Zuffa’s championship would be nothing more than an item that would be “characterized as a trophy or token of recognition.”

At a press conference earlier Friday in Las Vegas, Opetaia said the IBF and Zuffa Boxing titles were on the line in what would be considered a unification fight.

However, Zuffa Boxing is not a sanctioning body recognized by the IBF and “does not adhere to the same mandatory regulations applicable to the organization.”

“An unsanctioned contest is a fight for which the IBF has not formally approved sanction or for which a sanction has been formally withdrawn,” the IBF said in a statement. “If a champion enters an unsanctioned fight within the designated weight limit, the title will be declared vacant regardless of whether the champion wins or loses the fight.”

If Opetaia takes the fight, he will be stripped of his title for a second time; the first was in 2023 when he fought Ellis Zorro instead of his mandatory opponent, Mairis Briedis.

Opetaia signed with Zuffa Boxing in January with the intention of maintaining her undisputed status while competing for her inaugural title.

“We just want to be unchallenged and then spend time with our families,” Opetaia said in a recent interview with ESPN. “We’re talking about it unchallenged. If we’re not here to be unchallenged in this game, then what are we doing?”

“I feel like I was the better player. My reach, distance and speed were kind of better than his,” Stevenson said on The Joe Rogan Experience, recalling the rounds they played during training camp early in his professional career.

Shakur added that Lomachenko’s conditioning and striking were an advantage at the time as the Ukrainian prepared for the fight during camp.

“From the standpoint of being in shape and throwing more punches, I think he was better to some extent,” Shakur said. “He was preparing for his fight and I was preparing for my fight too.”

The sessions took place in 2017, when Lomachenko was preparing to fight Guillermo Rigondeaux. Stevenson, then a juvenile midfielder who had won an Olympic silver medal, was brought into camp as a sparring partner.

Lomachenko entered the professional ranks after one of the most successful amateur careers in boxing history. Unlike Stevenson, who won an Olympic silver medal, Lomachenko won two Olympic gold medals and set a record widely reported as 396 wins and one defeat.

That lone loss came to Russian Albert Selimov in the final of the 2007 World Amateur Featherweight Championship. Lomachenko later avenged this defeat twice in his amateur career, including a victory over Selimov at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Shakur said the experience stuck with him because he felt he was able to hold his own against one of the most respected technicians in the sport at the time.

Looking back, Stevenson stated that he believed Lomachenko may have looked at the situation differently after seeing how Stevenson performed during those rounds.

“If I’m Lomachenko and I know he weighed 126 pounds at the time. He was a kid growing into his 30s,” Stevenson said. “Now I see him grown up, bigger and stronger, and I see what he did as a kid. I would probably test the waters with him. I really wouldn’t want to see that guy.”

The two fighters have never faced each other in the professional ranks, despite competing in nearby divisions for part of their careers.

A two-time Olympic gold medalist, Loma won world titles in multiple divisions and earned a reputation as one of boxing’s most technically gifted fighters. Since then, Shakur has been on his own path, winning titles in three divisions and establishing himself as one of the most defensively gifted fighters in the sport.

While sparring sessions remain part of boxing history, Stevenson suggested that the experience may facilitate explain why a fight between the two never materialized once both fighters had reached championship level.

Juan Manuel Marquez said it was almost impossible to be among the top 10 Mexican players, but naming the greatest champion his country had ever produced seemed a much easier task.

The Hall of Famer himself is widely considered one of the top 10 Mexican fighters of all time, having won world titles in four weight classes.

Perhaps most importantly, Marquez had four iconic battles with Filipino icon Manny Pacquiao, ending their last meeting in 2012 with a devastating sixth-round victory.

Elsewhere in his career, “Dinamita” successfully defended his featherweight, super-featherweight and lightweight titles several times before calling the shots in 2014 for his 64-fight campaign.

While Marquez is certainly one of the best players his nation has ever produced, a position in the all-time top 10 remains extremely competitive, even for him.

When talking about Mexican champions, the first name that usually comes to mind is Julio Cesar Chavez, who previously had an astonishing 90-fight unbeaten streak. losing to Frank Randall in 1994.

In addition to him, Ruben Olivares, Carlos Zarate and Salvador Sanchez also deserve mention, although many would consider Canelo Alvarez one of the top 10 Mexican fighters of all time.

In an episode of the ProBox TV podcast, Marquez didn’t give a final top 10, but insisted that Chavez is “without a doubt the best.”

“The history of Mexican boxing is very affluent, it is tough [to list a top 10]. [There’s] Ruben Olivares, Carlos Zarate, Lupe Pintor, Salvador Sanchez, just to name a few.

“Because the history of boxing in Mexico is very affluent – [Marco Antonio] Barrera, [Erik] Morales, [Julio Cesar] Chavez – I put myself last. Chavez is without a doubt the best…Ricardo Lopez, Humberto Gonzalez.”

Lopez retired with an undefeated record of 51-0-1 (38 KOs) after becoming a two-time lightweight world champion, while Gonzalez became a three-time delicate flyweight world champion.

Barrera and Morales obviously also deserve to be in the consensus top 10, although that is a debate that will continue for years to come, especially as the country continues to produce outstanding talent.