by David P. Greisman

Peter Quillin has been at or a bit above middleweight for more than a decade and is outgrowing the 160-pound division. Michael Zerafa began his career at junior middleweight and has only been competing at middleweight for about two years now.

Zerafa doesn’t feel as if Quillin will have any size advantage, however, when they meet on Sept. 12 in the main event of a “Premier Boxing Champions” afternoon card on NBC.

“We know he’s a big boy. He’s solid. But I’m a pretty big middleweight myself. I’m standing at 6-1, 6-2. I’m very solid and strong,” Zerafa said on an Aug. 27 media conference call. “At junior middleweight I was very big, so I feel like his weight doesn’t really bother me. At the end of the day, we both have to weigh in at the same weight, so it’s not going to be advantage to Quillin or myself. I think I’ve got the reach and height on him, and we’ll just go out there and work.”

Zerafa is only 23 years old and was just shy of his 19th birthday when he turned pro, so it’s possible that he’s been filling out as he’s getting older. The Australian said he’s noticed a physical difference since allowing himself extra leeway on the scales.

“I feel myself a lot quicker, a lot stronger, a lot smarter,” he said. “Trying to get down to 69 kilos, it was mentally frustrating. The last couple of pounds, they do get to you sometimes. Now I can get down to weight easy.”

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