An ugly post-fight fracas has overshadowed Michael Zerafa’s catchweight bout with Tommy Browne in Sydney on Wednesday night after Zerafa’s brother threw a punch at Browne’s trainer.
The fight itself became an anticlimax when Browne was forced to retire with an injured bicep after the first round.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Boxing chaos in Sydney fighter’s brother attacks trainer.
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But the ring descended into a scene of chaos when Zerafa started taunting his opponent for quitting.
“You quit, you quit,” he kept repeating, in reference to the same thing his opponent had accused him of doing during his KO loss to WBA champ Erislandy Lara.
Browne’s trainer Tommy Mercuri then confronted Zerafa over the comments, and was met with a punch to the face from Zerafa’s brother.
The two opposing cornermen had to be split up as a group of more than a dozen people suddenly crowded the ring.
A brief melee in the ring at the ICC Sydney took place before the two camps were separated and order was restored.
“This is not good stuff, this is not good stuff at all,” Ben Damon said on commentary.
“The fight didn’t get going, but now it’s getting ugly regardless. And we need this to calm right down.
“Nasty stuff.”
Zerafa’s brother was later escorted out of the venue.
“We don’t accept the sort of behaviour at all and unfortunately people get caught in situations that they shouldn’t, but he’s gone now,” No Limit boss Matt Rose said of Zerafa’s brother.
It was a win nonetheless for Zerafa, who remains on course for an all-Australian boxing showdown with Nikita Tszyu, who also registered a win in Sydney on Wednesday, albeit in contrasting fashion.
Tszyu scored a ninth-round stoppage of Koen Mazoudier in an exciting contest, winning the vacant WBO intercontinental and IBF Australasian super welterweight titles and earning top 15 rankings with both organisations.
Unlike Zerafa’s short-lived clash with Browne, the main event had plenty of in-fight action with Mazoudier proving a tough opponent, peppering Tszyu’s head with several right hand blows, especially in the seventh and eighth.
“I had to work for that, it was not easy,” Tszyu said.
“I have to take my hat off to Koen, he’s one tough, tough guy.
“There was a point in the middle where I was kind of out of my feet, I had to kind of push through and dig deep.”
After coming out to the Led Zeppelin standard ‘Whole Lotta Love’, Tszyu was patient in the opening round.
Tszyu gradually broke down his opponent, alternating between stinging blows to the head and vicious body shots, but Mazoudier also enjoyed some success.
Asked if a Tszyu-Zerafa fight was next, No Limit promoter chief executive George Rose said “Let’s do it.”
Victorian Zerafa, who landed more shots in a pretty uneventful first round against 41-year-old Browne, was booed on his way to the ring and also after the fight.
“I love all the haters, keep on hating, Zerafa ain’t going f******I nowhere,” Zerafa said.
Zerafa, who suffered a second-round loss to WBA middleweight world champion ErIslandy Lara in March, was having his first fight under trainer Glenn Rushton, who mentored his old foe Jeff Horn.
Meanwhile, Brisbane-based Irishman Conor Wallace scored a split-decision, 12-round points win over Auckland-based Englishman Jerome Pampellone. It proved a close battle in an IBF light heavyweight world title eliminator and fight for the vacant WBO intercontinental title.
Wallace, who was cheered on by a large contingent of fans, landed several smart combinations while Pampellone responded with some strong right hands.
Police ejected at least one spectator from the arena after a cup was thrown during the fight that almost hit Pampellone’s trainer, Isaac Peach.
Other winners on the card included unbeaten prospects Jasmine Parr (6-0), Max McIntyre (5-0), Billy Polkinghorn (3-0), Sonny Knight (3-0) and Dharringarra Trewhella (3-0).
– With AAP