For Michael Zerafa, all roads lead to a Tszyu or two
Motivation can be a hard thing to come by in boxing, especially when coming off a loss.
The rebuilding phase can take time. Confidence-building fights often take place away from the bright lights and the big stage. Purses diminish. The bandwagon empties. All but the rusted-on fans disappear.
No one knows this better than Michael Zerafa, who is coming off a second-round knockout loss to WBA middleweight titleholder Erislandy Lara in March.
But the 32-year-old Zerafa (31-5, 19 KOs) has plenty to be fighting for when he takes on 41-year-old fellow Australian Tommy Browne (45-8-2, 19 KOs) at the ICC Sydney Theatre in Sydney, Australia, next Wednesday night in an eight-round bout on the Nikita Tszyu versus Koen Mazoudier undercard.
“My preparation has been great,” Zerafa told The Ring. “I’ve trained according to the fight. I’m not overtraining; I’m training real smart. I’ve got the mind firing, the motivation has kicked in. I feel good.
“Tommy Browne is a tough guy. Credit to him for taking the fight. I know he’s going to come to fight, and I don’t look past anybody. I’ve got a job to do next Wednesday on the 28th, and that’s all I’m focused on.”
Browne is a hardheaded and durable type who was once a featherweight contender two decades ago. The Sydneysider has won three bouts in a row against mediocre opponents with a combined record of 24-21 and doesn’t look to pose too many problems for Zerafa, but the Melburnian insists he is not looking past him.
“I never look for the knockout,” said Zerafa, who will be boxing at a catchweight of 157 pounds. “I just do my thing and try to set the traps. If I take them into deep waters, I’ll drown them. But if I see a knockout opportunity early, I’ll take it.
“It’s nothing I look for. I’m just going there to make a bit of a statement.
“Look, I know he’s tough and he’s going to come to fight. I like that; it brings out the best in me. When a guy comes with the dog in him, I fire up.”
In the Lara fight, Zerafa was boxing well enough until the Cuban southpaw timed him with a left-hand bomb that detonated on his chin late in the second stanza. Zerafa hit the deck, and although he made it to his feet at the count of nine, he stumbled back into a neutral corner, forcing referee Allen Huggins to wave off the contest at the 2:59 mark.
“It was a hard pill to swallow,” Zerafa said of the loss that took place on the undercard of the Tim Tszyu-Sebastian Fundora fight. “To go out like that was tough. But that’s just the sport. You’ve got to take the wins when you win, and you’ve got to take the losses as if you won. You’ve got to have that same mentality.
“You can’t just throw it all in. It’s still an achievement. You can’t just throw it all in and say, ‘I’m done’ and retire. Even though I lost and had a little sook in the back and whatnot, I didn’t look at the negatives. I said, ‘You know what, I fought Lara. I fought a guy who arguably beat Canelo Alvarez [and is] one of the best fighters to ever come out of Cuba, a future Hall of Famer. Look where I’m fighting; I’m at T-Mobile Arena.’ It’s an achievement. So as much as it was a loss, it’s a win. Not many people, if any, get the opportunity to do what I have done. It was amazing.”
Browne is more than just an opponent for Zerafa, who knows that an impressive win on a big domestic card like this will breathe new life into his career. Victory could lead him directly into a fight against rising junior middleweight Nikita Tszyu (9-0, 7 KOs) and potentially a long-overdue shot at ex-WBO titleholder Tim Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs) in the future.
“I can’t say too much,” said Zerafa when pressed on the details of his new three-fight deal with promoter No Limit. “I’m not too sure what I can and can’t say. There’s been back and forth, a few documents floating around. But there’s a Tszyu name on there – I don’t know if I can or can’t say – but look, there’s a three-fight plan and their names are on it, yes.”
Tim Tszyu’s younger brother Nikita has been developed into a domestic-level star. With his all-action, march-forward style, the man nicknamed “The Butcher” is already headlining local pay-per-view shows.
Mazoudier (12-3-1, 5 KOs) would be a good scalp for the 26-year-old southpaw to claim at this stage of his career, but Zerafa warns against comparisons.
“Nikita’s still inexperienced,” said Zerafa. “He’s still growing. He’s doing great things, but like I said, the Mazoudier fight is going to be a big test for him, because Mazoudier moves; he’s tough; he boxes well. And like you’ve mentioned, Nikita does get hit a lot.”
He added: “Out of his last six, I think [Nikita] has been hurt or dropped in four of them. I’m a different caliber to the guys he’s been fighting. The guys he’s been fighting have been tough and they walk forward, but I think I’m on a different level.
“Everyone is going off my last performance, but prior to that, me beating Jeff [Horn], me beating [Issac] Hardman, me beating all these other guys they put in front of me, it’s easily forgotten.
“But, again, I’m focusing on Tommy Browne. I don’t really care about Nikita; he’s got his own problem in front of him.”
The Hardman mention is an interesting one. Two years ago, Hardman, who was 12-0 with 10 knockouts at the time, thought Zerafa would be the perfect stepping stone at that stage of his career. It was a massive miscalculation by the Queenslander and his team. Hardman was stopped in two rounds.
“Everyone says, ‘Nikita’s a big puncher, Nikita’s this and Nikita’s that.’ Horn was the same,” said Zerafa. “He walks forward, he was strong, he was tough, he was the guy who beat Manny Pacquiao. Then you’ve got guys like Hardman, who is strong, tough, likes to walk forward and was much bigger than me. It’s the same; it didn’t end very well for him. So let them think that, let them do what they’ve got to do. They’ve got their own problems to worry about. I just focus on what I’ve got to do. My career is just like driving. I just focus on what I’ve got to do; I don’t worry about the other drivers on the road.”
With the added incentive of a Tszyu fight being dangled in front of him, Zerafa says he is taking a more scientific approach to this camp.
“I’m actually training harder, because I’m doing everything smarter,” said Zerafa, who will have a new corner for this fight, consisting of head coach Josh Arnold, Stretton Boxing Club’s Glenn Rushton and Matt Partridge.
“When I was younger, I used to get up in the morning and do a 25km (15 mile) run, then try to spar and then try to run again. I used to cook my body. Now, I’ve got a proper plan in place, proper recovery, and a chef who is cooking all my meals now, according to how I train. Everything has just been on point and I’m feeling really good.
“I’m walking out after training sessions wanting to do more after putting in two-and-a-half hours in the gym. So I feel amazing. And come Wednesday night, I’m going to leave it all out there in the ring.”
An audition for a big fight on a nationally televised card. What more motivation could a boxer need?
Australian-based boxing journalist Anthony Cocks has been covering the sport for over 20 years for various print and online publications. Follow him on X.
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