Zerafa no-result leads to boxing’s most grevious insult

Insults are as much a part of boxing as fighting, with verbal barbs flying around with as much regularity and venom as fists.

Whether it was Muhammad Ali’s poetic witticisms or the playground banalities that pollute the sport today, insulting your opponent is part of the fabric of selling a fight.

But there is one insult that is held back — reserved for only the most egregious affronts to boxing’s code.

Quitter. 

To accuse an opponent of quitting is to charge him of breaking a bond of solidarity that two fighters share when they go toe-to-toe in the ring.

So when Nikita Tszyu said “I definitely do,” after being asked if he thought Michael Zerafa quit in their fight on Friday night in Brisbane, it is a big statement to make.

“I was just thinking, I’ve got something in common with my brother now. He f****d it for both of us.

“At least I got two rounds out of it.”

In the second round, Zerafa was cut by an accidental clash of heads — a hazard common in orthodox-southpaw match-ups.

The contact left a small, open wound on his eyelid.

Under boxing rules, any cut around the eye needs assessment from the ringside doctor, Dr Alan Saunders.

He is obliged to ask how the injury affects the fighter’s vision. If a fighter’s sight is compromised in any way, it can lead to them being hit more regularly or with more force than they would if they were able to see, and therefore anticipate the punch.

Zerafa, by his own admission, said that his vision was “blurry”.

Fox Sports, meanwhile, reported that Zerafa twice said he could not see.

They gave the doctor no option other than to recommend that the fight be stopped.

In the cold light of day, this seems incredibly reasonable.

Fighters put themselves at risk every time they step in the ring — physically as well as professionally. A loss on a career CV can cost them more than just a number on their record — just ask Tim Tszyu.

If any illegal contact results in them not being able to perform to the best of their ability, taking the option to come back another day is logical.

But boxing is not a sport that lends itself to the application of logic — just ask Tim Tszyu.

The elder Tszyu was furious at Zerafa in the aftermath of the no-contest decision being announced. He added his angry shouts to the cacophony of dissent and aggression raining down from the stands in the chaotic scenes immediately post-fight.

He recounted what he himself went through during his fateful first fight against Sebastian Fundora, when a hideous gash on his forehead turned a pretty straightforward title defence into a bloodbath.

Glen Jennings referenced that in a sombre press conference in the backstage of the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.

“It’s very hard to quantify the cut that Tim had, which was an axe wound and when the doctor asked him at the end of every round ‘can you see?’ and the response was an automatic ‘yes’ … when he couldn’t see for s**t,” Jennings said.

Tszyu, of course, should have said he couldn’t see in that fight and not a single person would have blamed him. Not doing so cost him his world title and put him on a spiral away from the top level of the sport for the time being — a spiral that he’s only just starting to arrest.

That run of defeats included a rematch with Fundora where Tszyu failed to come out for the eighth round. 

It’s worth noting that Zerafa has history with cuts that have gone against him.

His second fight against Jeff Horn in 2019 saw a delay in the ninth round while a profusely bleeding Horn was checked by the doctor.

Zerafa had been unloading on Horn at the time, with the former world champion’s corner preparing to throw in the towel. Plenty of observers expected the referee to stop the bout.

However, the interference from the referee instead gave Horn time to recover and score two knock downs of his own to essentially win the fight.

In this instance, Zerafa did himself no favours in the ring as the decision was being made.

Zerafa, who claimed that he was not responsible for the stoppage, said he wanted to continue.

That is contradicted by interviews from the referee and audio ringside where it was perfectly clear that Zerafa understood the consequences of telling the doctor he couldn’t see — a fact he repeatedly denied.

His faux disappointment, with a delay longer than a footballer seeking a decision from the referee for dubious contact in the penalty area, only added to the vitriol felt in the stands.

On Saturday there was another twist. Zerafa posted to Instagram that he spent the night in hospital with a “shatter (sic) eye socket and damaged (sic) to the retina.”

This is plausible and echoes an incident in 2020 when Daniel Dubois took a knee against Joe Joyce in the 10th round and was counted out.

He was accused of quitting but had in fact suffered a severely fractured orbital bone and retinal bleeding, a career threatening eye injury.

Only Zerafa and his doctors know if that’s the case here, with the truth impossible to ascertain from a single Instagram story.

But given his history with the Tszyu family, the strikes against Zerafa do start to add up.

His no-show against Tim Tszyu in 2021 made him a pariah within the boxing community.

Rarely outside of a playground scrap has someone so relentlessly pursued a dust-up with someone, only to run at the first sign of the fight actually taking place.

The damage that did to Zerafa’s reputation could — and perhaps should — have been terminal to his fighting career in this country.

But throw this incident into the mix and the damage could now be irreparable.

“I was honestly s******g myself that he wasn’t gunna rock up to the fight, because he was late to the arena,” Tszyu said, reflecting the rock bottom opinion Zerafa has cultivated amongst his peers.

By their very definition, boxers are brave individuals.

Nobody who has ever not been in a ring can question their dedication to their craft, the bravery they have to show to put their bodies on the line in the pursuit of entertaining the masses.

It’s why Jennings and promoter George Rose stopped short of saying he quit. But only just.

“I was p***** off at first, and I just wanted to bite my tongue and not say anything I might regret.

“I don’t question any person who steps in the ring, because I’m not a fighter myself. 

“I think the way that people feel about his actions tonight, I think that’s up to a fighter to speak on it. I think Tim and Nikita had some really strong words to say about it tonight.

“But I am disappointed with how the fight ended.”

The No Limit Boxing team said it would have to have a long think about giving Zerafa another shot.

“It feels like our night got taken from us,” Jennings said.

“There’s always that risk that something else can happen.

“You have to question whether we have the resolve to go through all this again, knowing that it might happen again.”