Professional fighter Michael Zerafa has lauded Tevita Pangai Junior's decision to give away NRL and go all-in on boxing, suggesting he'd only be half as good if he split his commitment.
The former Canterbury Bulldogs star announced earlier this year he'd be retiring from rugby league to pursue a career in boxing.
Pangai Junior confessed his enthusiasm for rugby league had waned and decided he'd fulfil the dream he'd had as a 12-year-old.
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With only one professional fight under his belt, there's a ton of risk associated with such a move. But like Anthony Mundine and Paul Gallen before him, Zerafa said an all-or-nothing approach is commendable.
"I feel like that's the best outcome really," Zerafa told Wide World of Sports.
"Someone that's made that decision in their head that they're giving up NRL and they're on a full transition to boxing, that's the ones who's gonna go the furthest.
"Like your Mundines and like your Gallens, they're solely giving 100 per cent to one sport. If you give 50 per cent to rugby, 50 per cent to boxing, you can only be half as good – literally.
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"These guys, I feel like if they do the full transition and their body's right and their minds right, there's nothing to stop them – sky's the limit.
"To come out to the public and make it official… there are a lot of people that say, 'Oh, you know, I wanna do this and I wanna do that' and then don't follow through with 110 percent. It's more like a media scam kind of thing, but for him to come out and solely say that he wants to retire and he wants to fully go into boxing, you know, I take my hat off to him.
"You can't play boxing. You can play rugby, you can play sports like that, you can play football, you can play soccer, but you can't play boxing."
Zerafa said he's fascinated to see how Pangai Junior and the other NRL stars fare when they enter the ring.
The safety net of their teammates on the field will be gone and instead, Pangai and his former foes will be alone in a one-on-one contest in the ring.
"You've gotta go in there, you're by yourself, you're in the ring, you walk out with the team, but then you're the only one that gets up in those steps under the ropes and has to fight," Zerafa explained.
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"I take my hat off to him and all these guys that are stepping in the ring. Win, lose, or draw, they've all got big balls, literally, and you've gotta praise and give credit where credit's due because it isn't an easy sport and a lot of people think, 'Oh yeah, I'll fight him and I'll put some gloves on and all these guys try to shadow box' – it hurts my brain sometimes.
"These guys get in there and give it a hard go. And like I said, Mundine, Gal, Hodges, and now these boys. They're leading the way for the sport so full credit to that."
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