Australian contender Michael Zerafa 31-4 (19) has made a surprise addition to his coaching staff ahead of his world title challenge against WBA middleweight champion Erislandy Lara 29-3-3 (17) at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 30.
Former four-weight world champion Nonito Donaire will join Zerafa’s camp at the Team Ellis boxing gym in Melbourne to help him prepare for Cuban southpaw Lara before moving on the the DLX Boxing gym in Las Vegas closer to the fight.
It was a chance encounter in 2022 that brought the Filipino and Australian together.
“We met at a WBA convention and immediately clicked,” Zerafa said to Fox Sports Australia. “At that stage, I was already the mandatory for Lara’s title and he said to me ‘look, when that opportunity does comes up, I’d love to work with you’.
“Given [Lara’s] a southpaw, [and Donaire] has fought multiple southpaws… Nonito just said he would love to become that extra piece of arsenal in my preparation.
“So we’ve stayed in touch ever since.”
The Lara-Zerafa fight will be part of a four-bout pay-per-view card promoted by PBC on Prime Video. The show will be headlined by the non-title fight between reigning WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu 24-0 (17) and former WBC and WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman 30-1 (22).
Zerefa turned down an offer to travel to the US last week for what would have been a fly in, fly out appearance at a press conference to promote the fight.
“[Donaire] just said to me ‘it’s not worth it’,” Zerafa said. “The promoters had offered to fly me over to America and then all the way back again, in the same day. But for what? Twenty minutes? That doesn’t benefit me.
“Honestly, I don’t care about people getting to know me at a press conference. They’ll know me when I win the world title.”
Some of Donaire’s most memorably performances have come against lefthanded fighters – including his breakout victory over Vic Darchinyan in 2007 – and it is this knowledge that Zerafa wants to tap into.
“He’s shared the ring with some of the most dangerous fighters in the world,” Zerafa said. “Also, his expertise is in how to break down a southpaw and we’ve already spent hours together doing that, breaking down Lara.
“With our personalities too, we get on like a house on fire. And that is so important.
“Because you can have the best trainer in the world, but if there is a personality clash – a clash of egos – it’s just not going to work.
“But he and I, we’re always having a good time at training, forever taking the piss out of each other.
“And when I’m in a good mode, I’m a dangerous fighter.”
At 40 years of age most boxers are considered washed up, but the evergreen Lara insists he still has plenty left in the tank.
“I feel like I’m the modern-day Bernard Hopkins and that I can keep doing this for years,” Lara said.
“I know that Zerafa has been waiting patiently for this opportunity, so he’s going to be hungry on fight night. But he’s going to realise that he’s now on the world class level facing the best fighter in the division.”
Zerafa is expecting the best version of Lara too.
“He’s a guy with great boxing IQ who, at his peak, was a mover and never really engaged in wars,” Zerafa explained.
“I feel like he will still have all that. And he’s fresh. He is not a beat up, broken down 40-year-old.
“I’ve been tracking him for a while, watching what he’s up to, and he’s a guy who is always in the gym, always sparring, always working. And he’s confident.
“I cannot wait.”
