Boomers World Cup off to perfect start with Finland victory<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nRising fighters building a record and reputation seldom have to worry about such problems, but the higher one climbs, the cold hard realities of the boxing world become apparent.<\/p>\n
MMA fighters, especially those competing in the UFC, are on a continual loop due to the company's broadcast deal and its mission statement, which aims to create a week-in-week out fight league. And since all the fighters are contracted to one organisation, and they decide, who fights, when and where, competitors and fans have more to chew on.<\/p>\n
![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/cdea6315-acff-4b7c-a4cc-a66874499e05\")
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But the boxing world is the polar opposite, with several different factions trumpeting their own champions, in a divided landscape that can lead to long bouts of inactivity for fighters near the apex.<\/p>\n
That's where Aussie Michael Zerafa, finds himself.<\/p>\n
\ufeffZerafa, who is ranked No.1 in the WBA, was paid a six figure sum to step aside and allow champion Erislandy Lara to fight Danny Garcia in August. But the fight has been delayed.<\/p>\n
Under the deal, Zerafa is to fight as the co-main event on the same card, and will fight the winner within 120 days, guaranteeing him a shot at the WBA world title before the end of the year.<\/p>\n
But as is the case with boxing, Zerafa has been forced to wait, uncertain when he will get his chance. There are whispers Lara v Garcia may find itself on the Canelo v Charlo card, but that's yet to be confirmed. What is certain is that the Aussie will get his shot, but when is the massive question.<\/p>\n
The Victorian was due to enter training camp in Las Vegas ahead of his co-main event bout, but amid the political back and forth around the fight, he also received news nobody wants to hear.<\/p>\n
"My sister copped pretty bad breast cancer," Zerafa told Wide World of Sports. "I was meant to leave two weeks prior to when I found out.<\/p>\n
"Then we got a call saying we're going to postpone it a little bit. But it worked out OK because now here with the family for a different fight. I'm fighting in the ring. She's fighting outside the ring.<\/p>\n
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"Everything has come at once but you try and stay positive. It's worked out for the best (not fighting)\ufeff."<\/p>\n
The star boxer has dealt with long bouts of inactivity before, fighting just four times since 2019 , with his last win a decision victory over Danilo Creati\ufeff in November last year.<\/p>\n
Zerafa said not being able to fight in the past was difficult, but this time around, he feels there's still some fighting to do, just not inside the ring.<\/p>\n
"She's been dealing with some pretty bad stuff," he added. "Lucky it all worked out that I've been here to support her. It's super hard but I remind myself of the end goal.<\/p>\n
"She's got a long road to recovery\ufeff. She's already had one operation. She's going back and forth now to have more operations. They're trying to clean up all the cancer. It was a pretty nasty job."<\/p>\n
When he does eventually fight on the Lara v Garcia card, it will be just\ufeff his second bout in the US.<\/p>\n
Zerafa's only other appearance there was a fifth-round knockout at the hands of then-unbeaten Peter Quillin in September 2015. While he's never won outside of Australia, the Aussie worked his way up to be in line for both the WBA and IBF belts.<\/p>\n
However, he gave up the chance to fight for the IBF strap to focus on the WBA title.<\/p>\n
\ufeff"Every day I remind myself of the end goal and that's to be a world champion and to have a healthy sibling," he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most boxers grow accustomed to the gruelling process to just get in the ring and compete. \ufeffTraining camp, cut weight – then fight. It can […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":326321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=326319"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326324,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326319\/revisions\/326324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/326321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=326319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=326319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=326319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}