Dana White is making boxing moves again. The UFC CEO confirmed Jai Opetaia vs. Deontay Wilder and teased Shakur Stevenson vs. Devin Haney, according to a YouTube video posted Oct. 14. The confirmation and the tease are the whole story for now. No date or venue came attached to either fight in the material available, so treat both as TBD until White or his people put something official on paper.
The Opetaia half has a fun backstory, because a week ago the guy angling to fight him was a sitting UFC champion. Sean Strickland, who won the middleweight title back from Khamzat Chimaev by split decision at UFC 328 in Newark, is locked in a contract dispute with the promotion. A run of tweets last week suggested he was leaning toward vacating the belt and trying boxing, with Opetaia or Jake Paul as possible targets. Nina Drama asked White about it at Power Slap in Las Vegas on Friday, and he didn’t sound like a man ready to book it.
“I don’t think it ever goes good crossing over to boxing with the MMA, but Strickland is a tough guy and has hands,” White said.
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MMA Mania framed that as White shutting the request down, and Bloody Elbow reported that White waved off the callout and floated a much bigger name for Opetaia’s next fight. Now Wilder is the name attached. Meanwhile, Strickland’s would-be rematch with Nassourdine Imavov is stuck. Video surfaced of Imavov confronting him at the UFC Performance Institute over unsigned contracts, and UFC security had to separate them. With UFC 334 set for Nov. 14 in New York and UFC 335 set for Dec. 12 in Las Vegas, the SI/Yahoo report pegged early 2027 as the likely window if that fight happens at all.
On the Stevenson side, the undefeated star has been busy. He was in talks to fight Manny Pacquiao on the Tyson Fury vs. Anthony Joshua card, but Bloody Elbow reported those talks stalled because Netflix reportedly didn’t want to pay four huge purses for one event. Stevenson also called Lucas Bahdi an “F level fighter,” per Most Valuable Promotions, which posted Bahdi’s response on X. White dangling Haney in the middle of all that is a well-timed bit of mischief.
The wider boxing calendar is getting crowded. White publicly applauded Eddie Hearn for keeping Joshua vs. Fury in the U.K., the UFC teased an event on the same date at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, and Pacquiao is now reported for the Fury vs. Joshua undercard in December. White wants a seat at that table, and the Zuffa Boxing push is how he plans to get one.
My take: I love this, with an asterisk the size of Wilder’s right hand. Opetaia vs. Wilder is a real booking with a real name, the kind of crossover-adjacent spectacle that sells because everybody knows exactly what Wilder brings into the ring. One punch, maybe two. But a tease is a tease, and Stevenson vs. Haney is the fight hardcore boxing fans have been yelling about. White knows that, which is exactly why he teased it instead of confirming it. I’ve watched too many promoters dangle a dream fight to juice a press cycle and then go quiet for six months. Until White puts a date and a building on Shakur vs. Haney, it lives in a YouTube thumbnail.
