Jai Opetaia vs Noel Mikaelian Preview September 12th, 2026
Undefeated Lineal and Ring Magazine Cruiserweight Champion Jai Opetaia of Sydney, Australia clashes with WBC Beltholder Noel Mikaelian (Norair Mikaelian, Noel Gevor Mikaelyan) of Armenia this Saturday, September 12th in Las Vegas, Nevada. Opetaia won his titles plus the IBF version via a unanimous decision over Mairis Briedis in 2022. He defended the belts by stopping Jordan Thompson in the fourth round. However he was stripped of the IBF Crown for failing to fight Briedis in a mandatory defence as he fought Ellis Zorro instead in December, 2023 and halted him in the first round. Opetaia met Briedis in May, 2024 in a rematch for the vacant IBF Belt and beat him by unanimous decision.
Since then he defended the IBF crown five times against Jack Massey, David Nyika, Claudio Squeo, Huseyin Cinkara and Brandon Glanton. Opetaia stopped each challenger other than Glanton, who went the distance in the champion’s last outing in March. The IBF then decided to strip Opetaia for the second time for his recent decision to sign with Zuffa Boxing. And speaking of stripping titles, it’s believed that Mikaelian will be stripped of his WBC Belt when he enters the ring as the organization demanded that he meet David Benavidez rather than Opetaia. Mikaelian won the WBC Belt in an instant rematch with Badou Jack last December when he beat him by unanimous decision. They first met in May, 2025 with Jack winning a majority decision.
That was Mikaelian’s first fight since November, 2023 when he stopped Ilunga Makabu in the third round for what was supposedly the vacant WBC Title. The title was still considered vacant though as Jack was declared champion in recess as he wanted to challenge for the WBC Bridgerweight Title. Those plans fell through though and Jack remained the title holder. After sifting through all of this mess and the several alias names that Mikaelian goes by, I can tell you that Saturday’s fight can be seen live on Paramount + in most nations while DAZN pay-per-view will carry it in the UK and Ireland on the undercard of the Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn tilt.
Opetaia vs Mikaelian Betting Odds
Here are the betting odds from online sportsbook BetOnline.ag (full review here).
- Noel Mikaelian +800
- Jai Opetaia -1500
My Pick
The 31-year-old southpaw Opetaia climbs through the ropes with a perfect mark of 30-0 with 23 Ko’s. He obviously carries quite a bit of power in his punches with a current knockout ratio of 76.7 per cent. However other than Mairis Briedis, he’s fought limited opposition rather than world-class foes. Up to now his biggest wins have been against the likes of Brandon Glanton, David Nyika, Jack Massey, Ellis Zorro, Jordan Thompson, Daniel Ammann, Frankie Lopez, Kurtis Pegoraro, Mark Flanagan and Benjamin Kelleher.
Opetaia is a good-sized cruiserweight as he stands 6-feet-2-inches tall with a 76-inch reach. He has 149 rounds of experience under his belt since making his pro debut in 2015 following a pretty successful amateur career. Opetaia represented his homeland at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England as a heavyweight but was edged in his first bout. He was an Australian National Champion in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and won a gold medal at the 2011 World Junior Championships.
The Australian champion also captured gold at the 2012 Oceanian Olympic Qualifier as well as bronze at the 2012 World Youth Championships and boxed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. Since turning pro Opetaia has also won the vacant Australia-New South Wales State Heavyweight Title along with the vacant OPBF, Australian, WBO Global, WBO Asia Pacific, WBA Oceania, IBF Pan Pacific, IBF Asia Oceania, and IBF Youth Cruiserweight Belts.
Mikaelian, who is also known as Noel Gevor, Norair Mikaeljan and several other variations of the name with different spellings, fights out of Germany. He’s now 35 years old with a mark of 28-3 with 12 Ko’s. He’s been a pro since 2011 and has 221 rounds of experience to his name since. He stands just over 6-feet-3-inches tall with a 75-inch reach so has a 1.5-inch edge in height over Opetaia but gives up an inch in reach. He’s not the heaviest hitter in the cruiserweight division as just 42.9 per cent of his victories have come by stoppage. In fact, he’s stopped just three of his past 16 opponents.
The first pro defeat suffered by Mikaelian came at the hands of Krzysztof Wlodarczyk via a 12-round split decision in 2017. His second loss was to Mairis Briedis in 2018 by 12-round unanimous decision in a shot at the vacant WBC Diamond Cruiserweight Belt. And of course, his latest setback was against Badou Jack last year. His biggest victories have come over boxers such as Ilunga Makabu, Youri Kayembre Kalenga, Isiah Thomas, Stephen Simmons, Valery Brudov, Mohamed Azzaoui, Ismail Abdoul, Tamas Lodi and Tamas Polster.
As we can see, like Opetaia, Mikaelian hasn’t exactly been taking on the cream of the crop in the cruiserweight division either. He’s a solid enough boxer though and stopped Jesse Bryan in the fourth round for the vacant WBC International Cruiserweight Title in 2020 and his 10-round unanimous decision win over Daniel Alejandro Sanabria in 2015 was for the vacant WBO International Cruiserweight Title, which he then defended three times.
Prediction…
Mikaelian doesn’t really possess enough power to have a puncher’s chance here so he’s going to have to coax his 35-year-old body to outbox Opetaia. That’s a possibility but not a likely one though. Mikaelian doesn’t have the power to keep Opetaia at bay for 12 rounds so he’s probably going to be stopped or take too many shots to earn a decision. I’m expecting Opetaia to emerge with a victory but he’s likely going to have to work relatively hard for it.
Opetaia’s power is a class or two above Mikaelian’s.
Play: Opetaia -1500 @ BetOnline.ag
Check out my recent boxing betting picks to see my current form
Jai Opetaia betting • Noel Gevor betting • Noel Mikaelian betting • Noel Mikaelyn betting