Junior middleweight Michael Zerafa 28-4 (17) has doubled down on his claims that his fight against Tim Tszyu 19-0 (15) fell apart at the 11th hour due to failings from Tszyu’s promoter No Limit Boxing.
The 29-year-old Melburnian was scheduled to face the highly-rated Tszyu, 26, from Sydney at the New Castle Entertainment Centre in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia on July 7.
But one week out from the bout Zerafa was a shock withdrawal, citing concerns about the 14-day Covid-19 quarantine period in place between his home state of Victoria and New South Wales where an outbreak of the deadly Delta variant of the virus is currently underway.
“To me it didn’t matter to me if I quarantined or not, but in my team there were 12 to 15 members that played a huge role in my fight that just couldn’t afford it,” said to The Age and the Herald.
“People have building companies, panel beating companies, a lot that run their own businesses that couldn’t financially afford it.
“We said that to [promoter] Matt Rose and Team Tszyu and they said, ‘no worries, we’ll deliver exemptions and permits so you don’t get stuck’.
“Five or six weeks passed, nothing was delivered, and the week of the fight we had a meeting with Tszyu’s team… they promised the world and delivered nothing.”
Zerafa is unhappy about being portrayed as the bad guy in this situation and says he did everything to ensure the fight went ahead.
“We told Tim Tszyu, come down here and fight, and he said no because of Covid,” Zerafa said. “You can’t expect Tim Tszyu to come down here with no [manager] Glen Jennings and no [grandfather] Boris. He didn’t come to his press conference in Melbourne and used Covid as an excuse. It just shows they really didn’t want this fight.”
Zerafa has long coveted a shot at Tszyu, even flying interstate to his fights to call him out from ringside.
“I’ve invested three years in getting this fight, time and money,” he said.
“I’ve been back and forward to Sydney, crashing fights to make it clear I want to fight him, to then pull out a week later? Why would I go through all this effort with a huge pay day not to rock up?
“There’s two sides to every story.
“[The criticism] has been definitely disheartening but the people that know me know what I’m all about. And people who know boxing know full stop I never shy away from a fight and I never will.”
Tszyu fought on July 7 as planned, knocking out natural junior welterweight Stevie ‘The Viking’ Spark 12-2 (11) from Toowoomba in Queensland with a body shot in the third round.
The team behind the WBO number one contender has made it clear their next step is an international name with former world champions Tony Harrison, Danny Garcia and Liam Smith all mentioned as potential opponents.
A second opportunity to face Tszyu seems extremely unlikely but Zerafa is upbeat about his future following his first-round blowout of 45-year-old veteran and local superstar Anthony Mundine in March.
“I sell pay-per-views. I’m the Mundine now and I’m the villain. I’ve got tough skin,” he said.
“I get in there, I make a name for myself, make my money and try to make a legacy for myself.”
