‘Racist’ sledge that cause wild weigh-in brawl

Michael Zerafa is the most disliked man in Australian boxing.

Not just by the fighters themselves, but now from television executives as well.

Tonight’s event between Zerafa and Issac Hardman – a blockbuster all-Aussie fight – will not be shown on Fox Sports, Main Event, or Kayo.

Instead it will be streamed on Fite TV.

It would have undoubtedly been popular enough for one of the affiliated Fox channels – and probably even Main Event pay-per-view – but Hardman believes the TV executives have frozen Zerafa out.

It all stems from the Victorian boxer pulling out of a bout with Tim Tszyu last July. The Zerafa camp blamed COVID-19 as the reason they didn’t want to travel to NSW.

“It’s really disappointing not only for me and the other people on the undercard. This card and this fight is one of the biggest to be made in Australia,” Hardman told Wide World of Sports.

“I’m a Fox Sports fighter, I’ve been on there seven times. I’ve got the headway I’ve got because of that platform. It’s because of that coward Michael Zerafa and what he done cost them so much money. This fight isn’t on Fox Sports because of Michael Zerafa – end of story.

“I can’t string a sentence together towards Zerafa because he’s as dumb as a box of rocks.

“(Promoter) Dean Lonergan was certain this fight was going to be on Fox Sports. There was a committee, and all of them had said yes until the day after Michael Zerafa pulled out of the SAS show.

“The guy we needed to say yes said ‘Nah we’re not doin’ it’. If I was Fox Sports and I saw that pathetic effort on SAS where he pulled out with a shoulder injury, I wouldn’t have put it on either. He looks like a liability. When it doesn’t go his way, he runs.

“I can’t blame them, they’ve lost a whole heap of money with that guy. I’m not even mad at the guy who said no because if it was my company fronting up that money I’d say no as well because the guy has got no integrity and no backbone. Any sign of adversity he folds.”