{"id":93639,"date":"2021-07-01T06:26:14","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T06:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=93639"},"modified":"2021-07-01T06:57:34","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T06:57:34","slug":"angry-tszyu-leaves-door-open-for-zerafa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=93639","title":{"rendered":"'Angry' Tszyu leaves door open for Zerafa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian boxing sensation Tim Tszyu says he's bearing "a lot of anger" following bitter rival Michael Zerafa's stunning withdrawal from next Wednesday's fight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But rather than drawing a line through a bout with Zerafa<\/a> in the future, out of disgust, he remains open to beating down on the Melbourne product, declaring: "I still want to get my hands on him."<\/p>\n

Zerafa pulled out of the blockbuster July 7 fight due to concerns over the health and financial wellbeing of his team.<\/p>\n

It was decision that was described as "weak" by former champion Billy Dib<\/a> and led to a last minute line-up change, with unheralded youngster Steve Spark (12-1-0, 11 knockouts) stepping up for the next Wednesday's main event.<\/p>\n

Health authorities assured Zerafa's camp that it was safe to travel to Newcastle and that they would only need to quarantine upon re-entering Victoria until they returned a negative COVID test result, which they'd receive about 24 hours later.<\/p>\n

But Zerafa's team flagged concerns that stricter COVID-19 restrictions could be implemented during their time in Newcastle, which could lead to a 14-day quarantine period being imposed on them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The fight's promoter, No Limit Boxing, headed up by 2011 Manly NRL premiership front-rower George Rose, even allowed Zerafa to weigh in for the fight in Melbourne and fly in and out of Newcastle in a private jet on the day.<\/p>\n

But he still abandoned the fight, leaving Tszyu seething.<\/p>\n

"There's a bit of anger in there, a lot of anger actually. I've been preparing well, preparing hard for this fight and I really wanted to take this guy out," Tszyu said.<\/p>\n

"It's been a long build-up, a couple of years in the making, so there's been a lot of anticipation for this particular moment, and I was only one week out from getting my hands on him.<\/p>\n

"I still want to get my hands on him just for the fact that he's made me angry. I'm not happy, I'm quite frustrated, so I do want to get my hands on him, but we'll have to sit down with the team later on and consider what we do. But I do want to get my hands on him."<\/p>\n

When Zerafa was trapped in Melbourne's lockdown in early June, Tszyu was preparing for the super-welterweight clash on the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

Tszyu said at the time that "the weather here is beautiful" and it "feels like it's summer," while hitting Zerafa with a ruthless barb.<\/p>\n

"He'd be struggling out there … in lockdown," Tszyu said with a wry grin.<\/p>\n

"I couldn't care less about what he's feeling."<\/p>\n

\"Boxers<\/p>\n

And Tszyu, the son of legendary Australian boxer Kostya Tszyu, now accepts none of Zerafa's reasons for deserting the fight, despite the challenges of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

"There are a lot of sacrifices in boxing," Tszyu said.<\/p>\n

"Unfortunately for that team and for him, they didn't see the point in it.<\/p>\n

"We put our lives on the line. Even if you need to do a two-week quarantine, do what you've got to do. This is supposed to be the fight of your life, a fight for Australia, every fan wanted to see this. And they didn't just want to see the fight; they wanted to see him get floored."<\/p>\n

Tszyu commended No Limit Boxing on its efforts to save the fight.<\/p>\n

"The boys did everything they possibly can," Tszyu said.<\/p>\n

"There's no COVID here in Newcastle so I don't see what they're complaining about.<\/p>\n

"And again, even if you have to quarantine later on when you get back home … this is our lives, this what we do for a living. We don't wake up and go to work 9-5. We do this, we train, we fight, we dedicate, there's a lot of sacrifice involved and that shouldn't even be questioned."<\/p>\n

\"Boxers<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian boxing sensation Tim Tszyu says he's bearing "a lot of anger" following bitter rival Michael Zerafa's stunning withdrawal from next Wednesday's fight. But rather […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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\/93639"}],"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=93639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93641,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93639\/revisions\/93641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}