Although Jai Opetaia may not be the IBF cruiserweight champion come Monday morning, he is still the Ring Magazine champion and now the new Zuffa Boxing world champion.

Opetaia (30-0, 23 KOs) secured a dominant unanimous decision victory over Brandon Glanton (21-4, 18 KOs) in the main event on Paramount+. All three judges scored the bout 119-106, with Opetaia demonstrating more variety in his arsenal. During the in-ring post-fight interview, Opetaia reiterated that his goal remains to become the undisputed cruiserweight champion, despite Max Kellerman’s attempts to steer the conversation elsewhere.

It was a pretty average opening round as neither fighter was willing to commit heavily to their offense. Opetaia used a lot of movement to work behind his right jab while Glanton tried to cut off the ring and avoid Opetaia’s big left hand. Glanton did land a few right hands, but nothing significant. In the second round, Opetaia started unloading the 1-2 combination down the middle, since Glanton couldn’t counter quickly enough. Glanton followed Opetaia around most of the round, but Opetaia landed cleaner combinations toward the end.

Opetaia’s accuracy began to improve in the third round as his straight left hands frequently landed to Glanton’s head and abdomen, while Glanton couldn’t pull the trigger to fire back. Glanton did land a few body shots that caught Opetaia’s attention, but nothing else. Opetaia hurt Glanton with both left and right uppercuts throughout the round. Glanton became more of a sparring partner, absorbing punch after punch.

In the fifth round, Opetaia landed 33 punches and made each of them count as Glanton began to wear down. Glanton continued to hold Opetaia in the sixth round, leading to the referee deducting a point for it. Andre Ward immediately expressed his displeasure at the referee’s interjection, as he felt it was unnecessary.

In the second half of the fight, it was all Opetaia as Glanton had serious swelling on his forehead. Glanton was deducted a point in the eighth for holding, while Opetaia was deducted a point in the 11th for the same offense. In the end, Opetaia never lost control and proved why he is the man to beat at cruiserweight.

*This article was written by Abraham Gonzalez and first appeared on the FightATW.com site.