The choice ultimately became an easy one for Michael Zerafa.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that the Australian middleweight contender has abandoned his role in the previously ordered IBF vacant title fight versus Brazil’s Esquiva Falcao. The development comes just as the WBA ordered its middleweight titlist, Erislandy Lara to next defend versus Zerafa as his mandatory challenger and as the IBF was prepared to host a purse bid hearing which is now canceled.
Lara—who is represented by TGB Promotion on behalf of Premier Boxing Champions (PBC)—and Zerafa will have until April 13 to reach terms.
Zerafa’s team, led by manager Grant Elvis Phillips, initially sought a 30-day extension to the IBF purse bid which was scheduled to take place Tuesday at IBF headquarters in Springfield, New Jersey. A compromise was originally reached between Zefafa’s side and Top Rank, who promotes Falcao and instead agreed to a seven-day exception to reschedule for March 21.
However, the IBF informed all registered promoters on Monday of a March 14 hearing. It came to the surprise and chagrin of Team Zerafa, who still awaited news of a potential 14-day extension but was instead met with the sudden update of original plans remaining in place in lieu of their previous agreement.
“After, trying to reach you by phone and via text, I come to find out today, the day before the original purse bid date of March 14, 2023 that according to you, Mr. [Carl] Moretti (TR VP of Operations) has reneged on the March 21st purse bid extension,” Phillips told IBF president Daryl Peoples—and all IBF-registered promoters—in an email exchange obtained by Boxing Scene. “If Mr. Moretti had agreed to an extension until March 21st, I cannot understand, (a) why would the IBF let him break such an agreement, and (b) when would I have ever been informed of this had I not been persistent in reaching out to you regarding any extension past the already agreed upon 7 days that Mr. Moretti had previously agreed?
“What surprises me most about Mr. Moretti’s position is the fact that at no point did Top Rank show any interest in promoting their fighter Mr. Falcao. Therefore, reneging on his agreeing to a 7 day purse bid extension is nonsensical. Given these unfortunate circumstances, the interested parties that I have been in discussions with regarding the purse bid which was supposed to take place on March 21st after prior agreement by Mr. Moretti, I must inform you that Mr. Zerafa has decided to pursue other options and will no longer fight for the IBF Middleweight Title against Mr. Falcao.”
Falcao (30-0, 20KOs) and Zerafa were previously ordered on February 9 to negotiate terms for the IBF middleweight title fight shortly after the belt was vacated by Gennadiy Golovkin (42-2-1, 37KOs). The two sides were given 30 days to reach terms.
However, Top Rank contacted the IBF on March 1 to inform that talks were stalled and thus requested an immediate purse bid, as is the right of any promoter during such negotiations.
As previously reported by Boxing Scene, Golovkin also relinquished his WBA middleweight title shortly thereafter. The move was made just days ahead of a planned purse bid hearing to have been held Monday at WBA headquarters in Panama City, to determine promotional rights for a Golovkin-Lara title consolidation bout.
Golovkin’s WBA ‘Super’ belt was removed from existence as a result, as per the WBA’s ongoing title reduction policy.
Lara claimed a secondary WBA middleweight title following a first-round knockout of Thomas ‘Cornflake’ LaManna in May 2021. His lone defense of the ‘Regular’ belt came in an eighth-round stoppage of the spectacularly mustachioed Irish middleweight Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan last May 28 in Brooklyn, New York.
There were talks of Lara next facing former two-division titlist Danny Garcia, who was curiously placed in the WBA middleweight rankings despite having never fought at the weight. Ironically, the rumors fizzled after Lara’s upgrade to full WBA titlist as Boxing Scene learned that the sanctioning body planned to order a mandatory title fight versus Zerafa in lieu of a voluntary defense.
If there is any truth to a rumored Lara-Garcia fight, it has to wait out the mandatory process. A fight with Lara was always the preference for Zerafa (31-4, 19KOs), who has won four straight to position himself as a top contender for both the WBA and IBF titles.
The Aussie contender was prepared to go through with a Falcao fight for the IBF title if necessary, but not to the point of being left without a fair fight in the purse bid process.
“On behalf of… Team Zerafa, thank you for giving us the opportunity to fight for the IBF Middleweight Title,” noted Phillips. “I sincerely hoped that after many years of cooperation and mutual respect we’ve shared, someone would have given me the courtesy of not waiting until the day before a retracted purse bid to inform me of what should have been addressed at least one week prior.
“This breakdown in communication at the IBF is unfortunate to say the least.”
Falcao—a 2012 Olympic Silver medalist—will now await word from the IBF on his next targeted challenger for the vacant title. Germany’s Vincenzo Gualtieri (20-0-1, 7KOs) is ranked directly below Zerafa at number three by the IBF.
Falcao became the IBF mandatory following a technical decision win over Patrice Volny in their November 2021 title eliminator between unbeaten middleweights. Just one fight has followed, a ten-round decision over Cristian Fabian Rios last May 29 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox