Even at 95, Don King continues to show the sharpness that kept him ahead of his peers. The latest instance involving his fighter, WBC cruiserweight champion Noel Mikaelian, amply justifies that sentiment.
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“Don King reports that the WBC Cruiserweight title will not be on the line in the Mikaelian vs. Opetaia fight this Saturday,” read the tweet from ESPN’s Salvador Rodriguez. The post featured an image of the announcement.
“Promoter Don King has said that the WBC is not going to sanction Noel Mikaelian’s Saturday night fight with Jai Opetaia in Las Vegas, NV, on Saturday night,” it stated.
The notice follows the cease-and-desist letter King used to stop Mikaelian from entering a bout against former IBF champion and now Zuffa standout Jai Opetaia. The move, however, fell apart as it increasingly became clear that the fight would go ahead.
Set to take place in the co-main event of the card headlined by Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn, the bout has Mikaelian’s WBC title on the line, besides Opetaia’s Ring and Zuffa cruiserweight belts.
While the situation surrounding the Zuffa title remains confusing, a win over Opetaia adds the Ring title to the Armenian’s record. However, it becomes complicated if Mikaelian loses, something many overwhelmingly expect.
Opetaia was stripped of his title by the IBF, against which he filed a lawsuit in July. So, a win over Mikaelian puts him back in the four-belt championship picture, effectively making him eligible for a unification fight against star David Benavidez.
Don King informa que el WBC Crucero no estará en juego entre Mikaelian y Opetaia este sábado. Esperemos a lo que diga oficialmente el organismo…
Against that backdrop, back in June, the WBC had already ordered Mikaelian to defend his championship from Benavidez, who, after stopping Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez in the sixth round, claimed the WBA (super) and WBO titles in a Cinco de Mayo appearance.
Previously, in March, Mikaelian received an offer to face Lyubomyr Pinchuk for his first title defense since becoming a cruiserweight champion for the second time last December.
The matchup with Benavidez eventually fell apart. According to reports, Mikaelian claimed that he never received a formal, complete contract from the American champion’s side.
Unwilling to put his career on hold, Mikaelian, who in a recent interview claimed that he received the Opetaia offer much earlier as a voluntary defense, therefore argued that his contract with King allowed him to negotiate for lucrative options elsewhere and accepted the offer to fight Opetaia.
King’s latest announcement is also not without historical precedent.
When Don King used the same playbook before
Over the years, the Hall of Fame promoter has been involved in several disputes where promotional control and WBC sanctioning intersected.
Six years ago, King’s promotion sent a cease-and-desist letter directly to the WBC over a scheduled cruiserweight bout between his fighter Ilunga Makabu and Michael Cieslak. King reportedly claimed that Makabu’s exclusive promotional agreement had been bypassed.
So he demanded that the Mexico City-based sanctioning body cancel the fight and publicly withdraw its sanction.
In 1983, the WBC withdrew its sanction from Bobby Chacon’s scheduled title defense against mandatory challenger Cornelius Boza-Edwards. The move came after Chacon refused to fight Don King’s fighter Hector Camacho, whom the WBC also insisted he face.
When Chacon refused to budge, the sanctioning body stripped him of his super featherweight title.
Beyond that history, it seems Mikaelian was already expecting things to unfold this way.
“I didn’t know when it was going to come, but we were expecting it,” he said on media day Wednesday. “At the end I have to deal with the situation, and it is what it is at this point.”
“It’s just noise. I try to be focused on my fight on Saturday, and everybody has to do what they have to do. It’s not in my power what Don King does. I have my contract, and if he tries to block this fight, it’s on him. It’s not in my power. I know the legal part of my contract, and we did everything right, and we acted in good faith, and I’m ready to go for Saturday. It’s all just noise that tries to distract me.”
Speaking at the press conference, Mikaelian later said that he regretted his decision to sign with Don King’s promotion.
While the whole episode has once again put the spotlight on King’s promotional practices that have, in many instances, come under scrutiny, all eyes are now on the decision the WBC takes.
Having crossed one big hurdle and now just a few hours away from what could be the most critical fight of his career, Mikaelian, meanwhile, appears unfazed by the WBC title scenario.
His comments summed up his attitude. “I’m a little tired of sanctioning bodies telling me who to fight. I want to do what I want to do,” he said.