The 29-year-old champion from Phoenix sat in his ringside seat and watched Opetaia closely as he swapped fists with Noel Mikaelian on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Opetaia may have successfully defended his Ring and Zuffa cruiserweight titles and picked up the vacant WBA “regular” strap via ninth-round stoppage, but in terms of how he performed, Benavidez was disappointed.

“I’m surprised, but not in a good way,” Benavidez told several reporters. “He gets hit a lot, he’s slow, super slow, he got hurt like four times. There’s a lot there. The availability that he leaves for me to punch. I don’t know if he just had an off night.“

Opetaia – a 6-foot-2 southpaw from Sydney, Australia – was initially under the impression that he would be crowned WBC champion. However, the sanctioning body left things unclear until Monday.

The WBC originally ordered Mikaelian to defend his belt against Benavidez, his mandatory challenger, late in May.

Once Mikaelian (28-4, 12 KOs) opted to face Opetaia instead and stepped into the ring against him, the sanctioning body stripped him of his title and elevated Michal Cieslak from interim champion to full titleholder.

Benavidez stopped Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez in the sixth round May 2 at T-Mobile Arena to win the WBA and WBO cruiserweight titles. He is scheduled to oppose Poland’s Cieslak on December 12.

The IBF crown remains vacant.

Opetaia (31-0, 24 KOs) was stripped of that title once he decided to box Brandon Glanton on March 8 at Meta APEX in Las Vegas. The IBF refused to sanction the fight and warned Opetaia that he would be stripped if he took part in the event.

Opetaia went on to score a lopsided, unanimous points win. The IBF officially stripped him two weeks later.

Opetaia has an active lawsuit against the IBF, in which he claims that he was unlawfully stripped of his belt. He seeks full reinstatement as champion.

Benavidez (32-0, 26 KOs), who also holds the WBC light heavyweight title, isn’t worried about whether Opetaia will regain his IBF title. He is more focused on is his upcoming fight against Cieslak.

But once he gets him out of the way, Benavidez looks forward to inflicting major damage to Opetaia when they meet up.

“At the end of the day, Jai Opetaia’s a great fighter,” Benavidez said. “I have a lot of respect for him, but I’ll knock him out. Obviously, I can’t stay there and get hit. He has heavy hands. I have my fight signed for December. Then we can do it next year May.“