Amid the trash talk flying around Star City Casino during the announcement for Tim Tszyu's fight with Michael Zerafa, one defining feature stood out for the July 7 bout in Newcastle.
"If they were confident why would they want a rematch clause?" Zerafa's co-manager Brendan Bourke asked Wide World of Sports.
"I asked them would they tear the rematch clause up and no is the answer. They're not confident. They knocked back a $1 million offer to come to Melbourne.
"Tim would be taking a half a million dollar pay cut to fight at home. They're worried, they need the local crowd to get him over the line. They need everything in their advantage."
The rematch clause is an interesting wrinkle that adds another layer to the much-anticipated grudge match. Rematch clauses are usually included by the A-side if they're not totally confident their charge can pull off the win, providing a type of insurance policy. But after some of Tszyu's comments one would think a rematch clause would be the last thing afforded to Zerafa.
Tszyu had been saying for months he was the last option for him as he chased overseas opponents. The Zerafa camp is astonished the undefeated star would include such an option in the fight contract for a fighter they said was never considered until other bigger names weren't available to make the trek to Australia and go through two weeks of quarantine.
In the lead up to the fight announcement Tszyu labelled Zerafa a "circus" but the man who beat Anthony Mundine via first round stoppage believes Tszyu should show him more respect for "selling" the fight.
"He's boring. Me crashing his fight against Morgan has more views than his actual fight. He can say what he wants to say," Zerafa told Wide World of Sports.
"He's very plain; very vanilla. He's like a lemon, he doesn't have much personality. I respect him, I really do, even though it doesn't come across that way.
"He thinks I'm just a YouTuber that dances in front of the cameras, but mate I'm a legitimate fighter."
Before Zerafa crashed Tszyu's fight with Bowyn Morgan at Bankwest Stadium late last year, the Victorian's camp claimed the Sydney star had been ducking them for years.
Both fighters were set to fight in 2020 until Zerafa pulled out of negotiations accusing Tszyu's people of "low-balling" him.
Melbourne based fight promoter Brian Amatruda offered Tszyu the biggest payday of his career to fight Zerafa following his dominant victory over Hogan in March.
Tszyu has sacrificed half that amount to fight in Newcastle after a raucous reception during his last fight against Dennis Hogan with fans chanting "Tszyu-castle". Tszyu's father Kostya took seven fights there during his career and fans in the steel city are expected to quickly snap up tickets which go on sale today.
Zerafa and Tszyu had signed a contract to fight each other a few years back, although the latter pulled out due to an infected finger. To prove the injury was legitimate the Tszyu camp sent a photo of the hand to Zerafa's team. Zerafa claimed the hand in the photo didn't belong to Tszyu.
"You sent us a photo of your grandfather's hand," Zerafa said during the fight announcement.
"That was what you said, you can't fight because of your hand. You sent us a photo of Boris."
Tszyu maintained that his hand was infected at the time, following a trip to Thailand, yet that didn't stop Zerafa from going off one on of his tangents, telling those in attendance that nobody would take notice of the boxing legend's son if his name was 'Tim Smith'.
Tszyu told Wide World of Sports he will be methodical in his approach against Zerafa like he is in all of his fights. He said breaking down his lippy opponent will be like a game of chess.
Zerafa had a different take.
"It's not a game of chess it's gonna be a game of checkers - a fast game of movement. It's going to be who has the better brain," he said.
"He's fought guys who are very walk forward tough guys who don't have the boxing IQ. But now he's gonna have a guy in front of him that can do it all. I can box I can brawl he can do it too."
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from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/news/boxing-tim-tszyu-michael-zerafa-rematch-clause/4c73ef4d-f2ec-47e2-8e87-d6a686e288af
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