Michael Zerafa’s agonising wait for a world title fight might be nearly its end after the World Boxing Association (WBA) ordered a bout against middleweight world champion Erislandy Lara.
The two parties must now reach an agreement for the bout by February 15, otherwise the fight will go to a purse bid.
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Should that happen, the WBA confirmed there would be a 75-25 split for the champion and challenger respectively.
It is the second time Lara has been ordered to defend his title against Zerafa by the WBA.
When the pair were first ordered to fight, Lara’s promoters Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) opted to go down a different route and decided to pit the champion against American star Danny Garcia.
For that to happen, the PBC and Zerafa locked in an agreement which would result in the Aussie middleweight contender receiving step aside money as well as a spot on the undercard of Lara v Garcia and a guarantee to fight the winner.
However, a fight between Lara and Garcia never eventuated, sparking the WBA to re-order the champion’s mandatory defence and led to Zerafa ripping the PBC in a stunning spray.
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“I’m going to throw the PBC straight under the bus here because they locked me in a contract,” Zerafa told Tha Boxing Voice when asked why he couldn’t get a fight in 2023 to stay active.
“They said, you know, the Garcia-Lara fight, you’re going to be on the undercard and you can’t fight anywhere else.
“Then that fight didn’t end up happening, so I couldn’t be on the card.”
Zerafa revealed the date of the Lara-Garcia bout “just kept getting pushed” by several months, with no official date ever locked in.
But that wasn’t even the worst part.
“This gets even better. I haven’t received anything,” Zerafa said in regards to receiving any of the promised step-aside money from the PBC.
Zerafa has not fought since he overcame the previously-unbeaten Danilo Creati in November 2022, while Lara is yet to return to the ring since stopping Irish contender Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan in his sole title defence to date.