Motivation can be a hard thing to find in boxing, especially when it comes from a loss.
The rebuilding phase can take time. Confidence-building battles often take place away from the bright lights and the big stage. Purses reduced. The cart is empty. All but the rusty fans disappear.
No one knows this better than Michael Zerafa, who is coming down a second-round knockout loss to WBA middleweight titleholder Erislandy Lara in March.
But 32-year-old Zerafa (31-5, 19 KOs) has plenty to fight for when he takes on 41-year-old fellow Australian Tommy Browne (45-8-2, 19 KOs) at the ICC Sydney Theater . in Sydney, Australia, next Wednesday night in an eight-round bout on the Nikita Tszyu vs. Koen Mazoudier undercard.
“My preparation was great,” Zerafa told The Ring. “I trained according to the fight. I don’t exercise too much; I train very smart. I have the mind on fire, the motivation has kicked in. i feel good
“Tommy Browne is a tough guy. Credit to him for the fight. I know he’s coming to fight, and I’m not looking past anyone. I have a job to do next Wednesday the 28th, and that’s all I’m focused on.”
Browne is a hard-nosed and durable type who was once a featherweight contender two decades ago. The Sydneysider has won three games in a row against mediocre opposition with a combined record of 24-21 and doesn’t appear to pose too many problems for Zerafa, but the Melburnian insists he is not looking past him.
“I never look for the knockout,” said Zerafa, who will box at a catchweight of 157 pounds. “I just do my thing and try to set the traps. If I take them into deep waters, I will drown them. But if I see a knockout opportunity early, I’ll take it.
“It’s nothing I’m looking for. I’m just going there to make a bit of a statement.
“Look, I know he’s tough and he’s going to fight. I like it; it brings out the best in me. When a guy comes with the dog in him, I fire.”
In the Lara fight, Zerafa boxed well enough until the Cuban southpaw blasted him with a left bomb on the chin late in the second stanza. Zerafa hit the deck, and although he got up at the count of nine, he stumbled back into a neutral corner, forcing referee Allen Huggins to wave the match off at the 2:59 mark.
“It was a hard pill to swallow,” Zerafa said of the loss that came on the undercard of the Tim Tszyu-Sebastian Fundora fight. “Going out like that was difficult. But that’s just the sport. You have to take the wins when you win, and you have to take the losses as if you won. You have to have the same mentality.
“You can’t just throw everything in. It’s still an achievement. You can’t just throw everything in and say, ‘I’m done’ and retire. Even though I lost and had a bit of a sore back and whatnot, I didn’t look at the negatives. I said, ‘You know what, I fought Lara. I fought a guy who probably beat Canelo Alvarez (and is) one of the best fighters to ever come out of Cuba, a future Hall of Famer. Look where I fight; I’m at T-Mobile Arena.’ This is an achievement. As much as it was a loss, it’s a win. Not many people, if any, get the opportunity to do what I did. It was incredible.”
Browne is more than just an opponent for Zerafa, who knows that an impressive win on a major domestic card like this will breathe new life into his career. Victory could put him straight into a fight against up-and-coming junior middleweight Nikita Tszyu (9-0, 7 KOs) and possibly a long overdue shot at former WBO titleholder Tim Tszyu (24-1, 17 KOs) in the future .
“I can’t say too much,” Zerafa said when pressed on the details of his new three-fight deal with promoter No Limit. “I’m not too sure what I can and can’t say. There was back and forth, some documents floating around. But there’s a Tszyu name on it – I don’t know if I can or can say – but look, there’s a three-fight plan and their names are on it, yes.”
Tim Tszyu’s younger brother Nikita has been developed into a star at the domestic level. With his all-action, march-forward style, the man nicknamed “The Butcher” is already picking up local pay-per-view shows.
Mazoudier (12-3-1, 5 KOs) would be a good scalp for the 26-year-old southpaw to claim at this stage of his career, but Zerafa cautions against comparisons.
“Nikita is still inexperienced,” Zerafa said. “He’s still growing. He’s doing great things, but like I said, the Mazoudier fight is going to be a big test for him because Mazoudier is moving; he is tough; he boxes well. And as you mentioned, Nikita gets beaten up a lot.”
He added: “Out of his last six I think (Nikita) was hurt or dropped in four of them. I’m a different caliber than the guys he fought. The guys he fought were tough and they step forward, but I think I’m on a different level.
“Everybody’s going off my last show, but before that, I beat Jeff (Horn), I beat (Issac) Hardman, I beat all these other guys sitting in front of me, it’s easy to forget.
“But I’m focusing on Tommy Browne again. I don’t really care for Nikita; he has his own problem before him.”
The Hardman mention is an interesting one. Two years ago, Hardman, then 12-0 with 10 knockouts, thought Zerafa would be the perfect stepping stone at that stage of his career. It was a massive miscalculation by the Queenslander and his team. Hardman was stopped in two rounds.
“Everyone says: ‘Nikita is a big puncher, Nikita is this and Nikita is that.’ Horn was the same,” Zerafa said. “He stepped forward, he was strong, he was tough, he was the guy who beat Manny Pacquiao. Then you have guys like Hardman, who is strong, tough, likes to run forward and was a lot bigger than me. It is the same; it didn’t end very well for him. So let them think it, let them do what they have to do. They have their own problems to worry about. I just focus on what I have to do. My career is just like driving. I just focus on what I have to do; I don’t worry about the other drivers on the road.”
With the added incentive of a Tszyu fight hanging in front of him, Zerafa says he’s taking a more scientific approach to this camp.
“I’m actually training harder because I’m doing everything smarter,” said Zerafa, who will have a new angle for this fight consisting of head trainer Josh Arnold, Stretton Boxing Club’s Glenn Rushton and Matt Partridge.
“When I was younger, I would get up in the morning and do a 25 km (15 mile) run, then try to sprint and then try to run again. I cooked my body. Now, I have a proper plan in place, proper recovery, and a chef who now cooks all my meals, according to how I train. Everything was just on point and I feel very good.
“I walk out after workouts wanting to do more after putting in two-and-a-half hours in the gym. So I feel great. And come Wednesday night, I’m going to leave it all there in the ring.”
An audition for a major fight on a nationally televised card. What more motivation could a boxer need?
Australian boxing journalist Anthony Cocks has covered the sport for over 20 years for various print and online publications. Follow him on X.
