WBA Approves Opetaia-Mikaelian For Regular Cruiserweight Belt

“Breaking: WBA approved Opetaia vs Mikaelian for the regular Cruiserweight championship tonight in Las Vegas. The super champion of the organization is David Benavidez,” said Salvador Rodriguez of ESPN on X about the WBA.

Adding the designation does little to clean up the confusion surrounding the bout. Mikaelian arrived during fight week as the WBC cruiserweight champion, but Don King Promotions announced that his title would not be at stake against Opetaia.

The WBA has supplied a different belt only hours before the fighters enter the ring. The winner can call himself a WBA champion, but Benavidez will remain above him in the organization’s two-tier system.

Such an arrangement weakens the meaning of the award. Opetaia is already recognized by The Ring as the leading fighter at cruiserweight, and beating Mikaelian would carry more value than collecting a secondary WBA strap. The added decoration does nothing to settle who owns the division.

The WBA also has another championship situation to manage. If Opetaia wins, the organization would have Benavidez as super champion and one of the weight class’s most respected fighters holding the regular version. A consolidation fight would be the logical answer, but Benavidez has been positioning himself for heavyweight opportunities.

Opetaia (30-0, 23 KOs) faces Mikaelian (28-3, 12 KOs) in the co-feature beneath Ryan Garcia’s WBC welterweight title fight against Conor Benn. The card streams on Paramount+ in the United States, with DAZN PPV carrying it in the United Kingdom and Ireland.