{"id":501130,"date":"2026-05-05T02:50:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T02:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=501130"},"modified":"2026-05-05T05:25:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T05:25:54","slug":"miles-apart-zerafa-responds-to-mundine-swipe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=501130","title":{"rendered":"&#039;Miles apart&#039;: Zerafa responds to Mundine swipe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/michael-zerafa-262p\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Michael Zerafa\">Michael Zerafa<\/a> says there&#x27;s virtually no chance of fighting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/person\/anthony-mundine-232\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\" Anthony Mundine&#x27;s\">Anthony Mundine&#x27;s<\/a> son Rahim, after the latter expressed interest in throwing down with the Melbourne fighter.<\/p>\n<p>Rahim &quot;CJ&quot; Mundine will face Lance &quot;G-Banger&quot; McDonald in a five-round clash on the undercard of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/combat-sports\/boxing-news-2026-nikita-tszyu-oscar-diaz-fight-press-conference-preview-comments-newcastle-20260504-p5ztk1.html\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Nikita Tszyu&#x27;s bout with Oscar Diaz in Newcastle on Wednesday night\">Nikita Tszyu&#x27;s bout with Oscar Diaz in Newcastle on Wednesday night<\/a>, in what will be his second professional fight.<\/p>\n<p>But while his opponent&#x27;s nickname and penchant for wearing a G-string to weigh ins was a topic of conversation at Monday&#x27;s press conference, the talk veered towards a bout with Zerafa, despite the former title challenger no longer fighting under the No Limit banner.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/news-2026-jarome-luai-png-chiefs-signing-impact-phil-gould-clubs-comments-100-footy-20260504-p5ztrz.html\"><strong>Clubs &#x27;panicking&#x27; as Gould lifts lid on genuine PNG threat<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/afl\/news-2026-essendon-bombers-matthew-lloyd-comments-brisbane-lions-whiteboard-leak-20260505-p5ztub.html\"><strong>Lloyd calls for Dons to weaponize ruthless whiteboard claims<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/football\/premier-league-2026-chelsea-jesse-derry-head-clash-video-loss-nottinkham-forest-20260505-p5ztrl.html\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"\"><strong>Chelsea teen hospitalised after sickening clash on debut<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When asked about the end of his father&#x27;s career at the hands of the Aussie middleweight, Mundine Jr said.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>&quot;These guys like Zerafa, Jeff Horn they were celebrating like they had won against a prime Mundine,&quot; he told News Corp.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;That rubbed me the wrong way to be honest.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Mundine Sr said Zerafa &quot;took the easy way out&quot; in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/combat-sports\/boxing-news-2026-michael-zerafa-podcast-comments-death-threats-nikita-tszyu-no-contest-20260303-p5o6zp.html\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"his no-contest\ufeff against Tszyu earlier this\ufeff year\">his no-contest\ufeff against Tszyu earlier this\ufeff year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"133ea4de-3279-4da4-9ff6-08beada03cdb\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/133ea4de-3279-4da4-9ff6-08beada03cdb\" alt=\"\" data-width=\"4850\" data-height=\"3233\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Zerafa,\ufeff who is currently in negotiations with Chris Eubank\ufeff Jr for a bout in Melbourne later this year, emphasised his respect for the Mundine family in an interview with Wide World of Sports.<\/p>\n<p>The 34-year-old, who&#x27;s still fighting off criticism online from his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/combat-sports\/boxing-news-2026-michael-zerafa-podcast-comments-death-threats-nikita-tszyu-no-contest-20260303-p5o6zp.html\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Tszyu no-contest\">Tszyu no-contest<\/a>, said he understands the boxing game and how things work, and won&#x27;t take the comments from the Mundines personally.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>In terms of a bout with Mundine Jr, Zerafa pointed to the experience levels between the two as &quot;miles apart&quot;.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I respect the Mundines, it&#x27;s a legendary name in Australia, I get along with them. I guess Raheem&#x27;s got a little bit more to prove. He&#x27;s a talent,&quot; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I heard he&#x27;s an unbelievable basketballer as well, they&#x27;re just a talented family, but in terms of where he&#x27;s at and where I&#x27;m at, it&#x27;s miles apart.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I feel if he gets to wherever I&#x27;m at, I&#x27;ll be well and truly done. He&#x27;s only two fights in.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"48164512-f87f-4606-822b-e93435dcffe2\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/48164512-f87f-4606-822b-e93435dcffe2-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Zerafa.\" data-width=\"4186\" data-height=\"2597\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;I think he&#x27;s ranked like 900 in the world. I&#x27;m sitting top 10 in the world. There&#x27;s a huge margin between us.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Where I&#x27;m going and where he&#x27;s at are two different worlds.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I&#x27;ve fought for multiple world titles, it says it all. He&#x27;s fighting a guy called &quot;G-Banger&quot; and I&#x27;m fighting Eubanker. You know what I mean?&quot;<\/p>\n<p>As for Mundine Sr&#x27;s comments about Zerafa&#x27;s controversial clash with Nikita Tszyu, the Melburnian acknowledged it might&#x27;ve been part of a campaign to get him to fight his son.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I&#x27;m sure he believes that I took the easy way, I&#x27;m sure everyone believes that,&quot; Zerafa said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I&#x27;m the only one in the ring that knows what happened and the truth. I&#x27;m not here to slander anybody or throw hate around.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"9ea3f1fd-5772-496a-a346-fbb1fb6ca092\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/9ea3f1fd-5772-496a-a346-fbb1fb6ca092-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Nikita Tszyu (left) and Michael Zerafa chat after the non-result.\" data-width=\"4364\" data-height=\"2899\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;I&#x27;ve got nothing but respect for them, and, every time I see them, there&#x27;s nothing but love between me and them.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I get how the sport works you gotta bait some fighters to try to get the thing over the line, but at the end of the day, where I&#x27;m moving and where he&#x27;s at is well and truly too far apart.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Z\ufefferafa said his focus is on fighting the British son of a legend, Eubank Jr, in Melbourne later in the year, with several proposed venues including Rod Laver Arena and John Cain Arena.<\/p>\n<p>The bout was supposed to take place in August,\ufeff but Eubank just welcomed twins in early April, which scuppered plans.<\/p>\n<p>The Victorian government is also part of negotiations, with both fighters said to have signed on the dotted line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Michael Zerafa says there&#x27;s virtually no chance of fighting Anthony Mundine&#x27;s son Rahim, after the latter expressed interest in throwing down with the Melbourne fighter. <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=501130\" title=\"&#039;Miles apart&#039;: Zerafa responds to Mundine swipe\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":501132,"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\/501130"}],"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=501130"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":501134,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501130\/revisions\/501134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/501132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=501130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=501130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=501130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}