{"id":75081,"date":"2025-08-18T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T09:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/75081\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T09:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T09:00:09","slug":"michael-zerafa-threatens-legal-action-after-nikita-tszyu-press-conference-no-show-no-limit-boxing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/75081\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Zerafa threatens legal action after Nikita Tszyu press conference no-show, No Limit Boxing"},"content":{"rendered":"

A furious Michael Zerafa has threatened legal action against Australian promoters No Limit after a bizarre run of events that saw him fail to attend a press conference<\/a> promoting Wednesday night\u2019s hyped Sydney showcase.<\/p>\n

Nikita Tszyu vs Lulzim Ismaili | Wednesday 20 August 7PM AEST | Order this PPV event now with Main Event on Kayo Sports.<\/a><\/p>\n

In a statement released to Instagram page, Zerafa added to a morning of intrigue after he was initially declared a mysterious no-show at a press event attended by the likes of Nikita Tszyu — who is back headlining the event after a year off — plus Brock Jarvis and Brandon Grach.<\/p>\n

The Zerafa absence was the biggest story of the Monday press event, and revived memories of his famed 2021 fight cancellation against Tim Tszyu.<\/p>\n

Yet the fighter dubbed Pretty Boy said that, rather than going AWOL, he was told by No Limit to stay away, and suggested he had been defamed after it was hinted that he had decided not to attend.<\/p>\n

In his statement, Zerafa started: \u201cLet me make this very clear.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cAt 9:41am, I received a call from No Limit telling me I was no longer required at the press conference. When I asked why, the response was vague \u201cwe\u2019ve had to make some changes\u201d. No further explanation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew it didn\u2019t sit right, so we released a statement two hours before the press conference, laying out the facts.<\/p>\n

\u201cStill, they went ahead and falsely told national TV and streaming audiences that I \u201cno showed\u201d. That is not just dishonest, it\u2019s defamation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot remove someone, then publicly shame them for not being there. That\u2019s a direct attack on my integrity, my professionalism, and my name. And that has real consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent years building a brand I\u2019m proud of and I won\u2019t sit back while others try to damage my reputation to serve their own narrative. This attempt to damage my reputation is serious and it won\u2019t be ignored. Our legal team has now been contacted. Enough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Dark things’ Nikita’s emotional reveal | 02:17<\/p>\n

The drama started around midday on Monday when it became obvious Zerafa wasn\u2019t in attendance for what was expected to be an explosive press conference showdown with Nikita Tszyu \u2013 and only 24 hours after accusing The Butcher of embarrassing his Hall of Fame father Kostya.<\/p>\n

Asked about the fighter\u2019s absence, No Limit boss George Rose didn\u2019t shed any light on the situation however did stress that the world ranked middleweight would be in attendance for Tuesday\u2019s weigh-ins.<\/p>\n

The bizarre chain of events came as both Zerafa and the younger Tszyu sibling were expected to use the event — and Wednesday card — to springboard into a massive domestic grudge match in December.<\/p>\n

A bout between the pair would continue a long-running feud between the Melburnian and Australia\u2019s most famous fight family.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday night, Zerafa takes on American Mikey Dahlman (18-1), while Tszyu headlines against undefeated European prospect Lulzim Ismaili (12-0).<\/p>\n

Should they both win, No Limit are keen to have the two rivals square off in a stadium show.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Zerafa suggested Nikita Tszyu\u2019s increasingly weird behaviour was an embarrassment to everything his famous dad Kostya had built.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A furious Michael Zerafa has threatened legal action against Australian promoters No Limit after a bizarre run of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-75081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}