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Recovering Zerafa lashes keyboard critics

3 minute read

Michael Zerafa maintains he'll still end Tim Tszyu's undefeated boxing run despite a hospital stint with what doctors think is a kidney or bowel infection.

TIM TSZYU.
TIM TSZYU. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Michael Zerafa has hit back at keyboard cowards who accused the boxer of being scared of Tim Tszyu and placing their all-Australian super fight in jeopardy.

Zerafa was hospitalised during the week with a mystery stomach complaint that left him curled up "in a ball" in excruciating pain for hours on end.

He said the illness came out of nowhere.

"Look, we were in training, we were in the peak of our camp. I came in on a Wednesday, it was a normal training session and I just felt a little bit of a niggle, a little bit of pain, and I was just unsettled," Zerafa said on Saturday.

"I felt a little green, I finished that session and went home that night and I ended up just throwing up and just needed to go to the bathroom every two minutes, and had pains and went straight to the hospital.

"I'm still waiting on results but they're saying I've got an infection in either the kidney or the bowel or inflammation around the stomach.

"I was a literally in a ball on Wednesday night. I couldn't move."

Now back in the gym and insisting he'll still end Tszyu's undefeated run at the Newcastle Entertainment Centre on July 7, Zerafa said it was sad that people had taken to social media to claim he was AWOL and running away from the much-hyped fight.

"Obviously the health comes first and we're not shying away from any fight," he said.

"If this happened to Tim, I would wish him nothing but a speedy recovery. It's a sport, it is what it is.

"Paul Gallen said it perfectly the other day at his press conference - as adults, they just hide behind a keyboard.

"It's disappointing. All I'm doing is giving it a crack. It's sad that you see people, not knowing what was wrong with me, being so negative.

"I could have died for what anybody knows and they were saying this and that.

"But you can never please everybody."

Tszyu (18-0, 14KO) is vowing to pound Zerafa with body blows after learning of his fierce rival's condition.

Zerafa is unfazed.

"He hasn't fought anyone like me. I've got a lot of things up the sleeve that I'm going to bring out on the night," he said.

"I believe that if I do everything that we've implemented in training, there's a huge opportunity that I can stop him. I've got a lot of power.

"(But) he's a tough opponent, he's doing great and it will be a good fight.

"The biggest winner out of this is Australian boxing."

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