Hearn said the decision to move in a new direction makes sense on Opetaia’s part, even if the immediate results have not yet produced the type of opposition that has been publicly discussed.
“I think it’s a good move for him because I think he had to do something because he was out of date,” Hearn told Boxing News when discussing Opetaia’s position in the division.
Opetaia is scheduled to face Brandon Glanton in his next fight, although Hearn suggested the bout did not reflect the bigger fights expected when talk of Zuffa’s entry into boxing began to circulate.
“You can’t sit there and go, ‘I’m moving to Zuffa because I’m going to get the big unification fights,’ and then Brandon Glanton fights,” Hearn said. “You’re just doing the same thing you’ve been doing for the past year.”
Glanton previously faced Chris Billam-Smith in a fight that ended in a wide decision loss, leading to questions about how much the upcoming fight will advance Opetaia’s position among the top names in cruiserweight.
Hearn also acknowledged that the difficulty in landing big fights wasn’t necessarily Opetaia’s fault. The promoter pointed to the practical challenge of securing willing opponents in a division where several contenders followed separate promotional paths.
“It’s not his fault because people didn’t want to fight him,” Hearn said when discussing the situation surrounding the champion’s activity.
Opetaia’s in-ring skills were rarely in doubt, but the division struggled to produce the kind of matches that explained its hierarchy. The move linked to Zuffa was seen by some observers as an attempt to open another path to those opportunities.
Whether that change leads to the fights that define the division will become clearer after the next defense, which for now follows a familiar pattern of activity around one of cruiserweight’s most highly regarded champions.
