Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports.<\/a><\/p>\n“It’s a worse Tim!” – Zerafa slams Tszyu | 03:33<\/p>\n
While significantly more experienced than the younger Tszyu brother, the fighter dubbed Pretty Boy was finished within two rounds of his most recent world title attempt against WBA middleweight champ Erislandy Lara.<\/p>\n
Before that Las Vegas opportunity, the Melburnian had also fought, and lost, key showdowns against superstar Englishman Kell Brook, big punching American Peter Quillin, Russia\u2019s Arif Magomedov and Australin boxing legend, Jeff Horn.<\/p>\n
Regardless, Zerafa\u2019s long standing as a ranked middleweight contender sees him the $1.85 TAB favourite, with Tszyu slightly wider at $1.92.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd where you are, I\u2019ve been,\u201d Zerafa said at one point of the Face Off, staring across the table at Tszyu.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 40 fights in. Have fought for world titles, fought world champions, cleaned out my backyard. You haven\u2019t done that yet \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
At which point, Tszyu interjected.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve come up short,\u201d he grinned.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo has your brother,\u201d Zerafa shot back, a dig at Tim Tszyu having now dropped three straight world title opportunities on American soil. \u201cYour brother got given a world title. Went to bed Monday and woke up Tuesday as world champion\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cRemember, I\u2019m not my brother\u201d.<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cI\u2019m just saying. You\u2019re throwing hate my way \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cI\u2019m just speaking reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cYes, I fell short. But the guys I fell short to, respectfully \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cAre much better (than me), I know\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tszyu v Zerafa face-off HEATS UP | 01:42<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cYou might get there. But you\u2019re not there yet. You are doing great things in this sport and I give you props. You are a big puncher, you\u2019ve beaten the guys in front of you. But there are a lot of things you need to worry about \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, Tszyu again took aim when Zerafa revived his 2018 decision loss to Brook — which finished with scorecards favouring the Englishman 118-110, 119-109, 117-111.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went 20-0, then went overseas, fighting everyone in their backyard,\u201d Zerafa said. \u201cTook Kell Brook 12 rounds in front of 25,000 people. I was 25 years old. Have you done that? You\u2019re 27.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cYou still lost every round\u201d.<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cDoesn\u2019t matter. And no I didn\u2019t actually. He only beat me by, like three rounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cOK. Copy.\u201d<\/p>\n
And so it continued, with Nikita also bringing up Zerafa\u2019s history in big fights when asked if a loss to him would end the Melburnian\u2019s career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it finishes the way it did against Lara,\u201d he said, \u201cor how it finished against Peter Quillin, that would be more devastating for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerafa, meanwhile, also hinted that, while he has long stressed a win over Nikita Tszyu will get him a shot at older brother Tim, there is now another opportunity available should he win, January 16.<\/p>\n
Asked initially about what a win over The Butcher would do for him, Zerafa said: \u201cJust know there are other plans behind this\u201d.<\/p>\n
To which Tszyu grinned.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, I\u2019ve heard you think this is the set up to fight Tim,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cI don\u2019t think that \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cSo you know that? All I know for sure is that no matter what happens, win or lose, the Tim fight is never going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cDid I say Tim? You said Tim \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cI know what you\u2019re alluding to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cI wasn\u2019t actually going that way …\u201d<\/p>\n
Again, Pretty Boy was again asked to expand.<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cThere\u2019s no need to say. There are other plans. Other plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
At which point host Ben Damon interjected.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, what other plans are you talking about Michael?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cI can\u2019t go into that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Damon: \u201cSo it\u2019s not your belief that if you beat Nikita you fight against Tim Tszyu?\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cI don\u2019t know. That works. And it would be mad if it did happen. Imagine taking out both Tszyus?\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cSo what\u2019s the big plan then?\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cWe\u2019ll see…\u201d<\/p>\n
N. Tszyu vs Zerafa | Friday 16 Jan from 7pm AEDT | The trash talk and bitterness come to a head when Nikita Tszyu steps into the ring to face Michael Zerafa in one of the most anticipated fights in Australian boxing history. | Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports.<\/a><\/p>\n‘I’m obsessed’: Big NAS set to take over | 01:04<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, both men also questioned the other\u2019s ability to take a punch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis fight isn\u2019t going the distance,\u201d Zerafa said. \u201cSomeone is getting knocked out. I don\u2019t know who, but one of us is getting knocked out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd your chin is very, very questionable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cI could say the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cWhere have you seen me go down multiple times?\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cNot multiple times, but you got (dropped) by Lara \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cOK, are you Lara?\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cNo, of course not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cBut the guys you\u2019re getting hit by \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cYou got hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be there (against Lara). I\u2019ve already admitted that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cThat was your one opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cYeah, it was. And to this day I kick myself. But I needed that loss. I got too complacent. Trained 18 months for a date that was never there \u2026 I mentally switched off. I also had other issues. I\u2019m not using that as an excuse. But I know that wasn\u2019t me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then soon after, Zerafa continued: \u201cNow the guys you\u2019re getting hurt by, are they on my level?\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cAnd you\u2019re getting hurt by these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tszyu: \u201cWhich ones do you want to talk about specifically?\u201d<\/p>\n
Zerafa: \u201cAll of them \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Zerafa has sensationally revealed he is no longer planning to beat both Nikita and Tim Tszyu in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-391089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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