The bitter rivalry between Tim Tszyu and Michael Zerafa is expected to resurface again in an unexpected way when the Aussie boxer’s younger brother Nikita fights in two weeks, Daily Mail Australia can reveal.
Nikita’s famous brother will be in his corner and they are both readying themselves for Zerafa to be disruptive in his opponent Ben Bommber’s entourage during the bout on May 24.
‘Tim said he’d fly down and work my corner, which could be interesting,’ the younger Tszyu told Daily Mail Australia.
‘This bloke I’m fighting, Ben, has a bit of a mouth like Zerafa on him and I think he has trained at or comes from the Zerafa gym, so Michael probably will turn up.’
WBO super welterweight world champion Tim Tszyu (pictured on the left) will work the corner for his younger brother Nikita (picture right) when Nikita fights in Melbourne next week. Fireworks are expected out of the ring.
That prospect of a ringside confrontation firmed up considerably after the older Tszyu’s spray in a press conference this week, when he questioned Zerafa’s legitimacy as a fighter.
Zerafa and Tim have been at each other’s throats ever since the former infamously stepped away from a fight with Tszyu at the last minute in June 2021, citing Covid fears as the reason.
‘Tim Tszyu is f**king delusional,’ Zerafa said in an interview last year.
‘He always backtracks on his word and while he was in the amateurs contemplating whether to be a professional, after Daniel Lewis bashed the f**k out of him, I was fighting for world titles. He’s been dropped by B+ fighters.’
Zerafa recently said of his rival, ‘He’s an idiot, he has no idea. He’s an interim world champion, thinks he’s the best fighter in the world, but nobody wants to fight him because nobody knows him, he’s only known in Australia.’
Tim fired back in an explosive verbal retaliatory attack last week as he announced his next opponent will be top-five-ranked Mexican Carlos Ocampo.
‘That just shows his character, shows exactly the type of person he is. He’s a fraud,’ said Tszyu.
Michael Zerafa – who was savaged at a recent press conference by Tim Tszyu – is expected to be ringside when Nikita fights in Melbourne later this month
Tim Tszyu will be ready for Zerafa if he shows up at the Margaret Court Arena fight on May 24
Then again, last month Zerafa repeated his no-show antics by stepping away from a world title bout, saying he could earn more money fighting someone else.
That also infuriated Tszyu.
‘There’s no way I’d ever step away from a world title fight,’ he said.
‘But in saying that, the only fighters who get offered step aside money are those who aren’t important, the ones nobody cares about.
‘I dunno how much he took. But that bloke would accept 500 bucks.’
Nikita, 25, is set to have his sixth professional fight and is steadfastly carving out his own career while trying to step out of the large shadow created by his famous father and brother.
He’s incorporated a lot of athletic speed training into his preparation this time around, regularly sprinting and improving his speed at the running track – and is very quick over 100m as a result.
Experts who’ve seen him run believe if he raced over 100m, he’d clock in at 11.3 seconds.
Nikita Tszyu is pictured improving his sprinting and mobility this week, prompting experts to say he would run the 100m in just over 11 seconds.
But Bommber has criticised him for lacking stamina.
‘Nikita Tszyu is 25 years old. He’s in peak condition yet he can’t do more than six rounds? I want to fight him over eight rounds, which we asked for, but no, he only wants six,’ Bommber said.
‘Everyone knows he comes out strong and just blasts opponents. But come on, I know You Tubers who can go eight rounds. So he should be fighting past six rounds at this point.
‘Fans want to see eight rounds or 10 rounds. And that’s what we wanted, too.’
Nikita – who attended the prestigious Newington College in Sydney and broke every single VO2 Max Test record at the school – says eight rounds is not part of the process… yet.
‘I’ll fight eight rounds at my next bout. Building a career in boxing is about taking the right steps and soon enough I’ll be fighting 10 rounds or more when I’m ready,’ he explained.
‘Look at Tim. He’s in shape to fight anyone over 15 rounds now but he built up to that and now will fight 12 rounders every fight. That’s how you establish a career.
‘I really don’t think I’ll even need six rounds against Ben. He seems like a nice kid but I’ve watched his fights. He’s fought nobody and it might be over pretty quickly.’
Unbeaten Bommber has fought three times on the undercard of Zerafa fights and has trained at Zerafa’s gym.
‘That’s why I think Zerafa will turn up and cause a scene,’ said Nikita.
Nikita smashed Bo Belbin (pictured) in his last fight to take his impressive record to five fights, five wins, four by way of knockout
If Zerafa is in the crowd, he will be joined by the current WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, who claimed the belt in 2020 when he smashed Deontay Wilder into submission.
Fury is a friend of heavyweight headline act on this card, Kiwi slugger Joseph Parker, and has trained with him.
Bommber says he will have world-renowned trainer Rodney Crisler in his corner.
Crisler trains Devin Haney, the man who took the world crown from Aussie George Kambosos in the lightweight division late last year.
