Michael Zerafa has grown beyond tired of waiting for his overdue title shot.

More than a year has passed since the Melbourne, Australia native has last been in the ring. The majority of his downtime is attributed to having to wait out an Erislandy Lara-Danny Garcia WBA middleweight title fight, for which he was contractually guaranteed to face the winner as the mandatory challenger.

“You’ve been the “current” champion for almost two years without a defense,” Zerafa exclaimed in a social media post Monday evening (Tuesday morning AEST), “Time to test your skill against someone you can’t “pick”… ME. Your MANDATORY.”

Lara-Garcia was originally targeted for August, per a submission from TGB Promotions to the WBA when asked for an update at a time when the sanctioning body ordered a Lara-Zerafa mandatory title fight. Rumors then surfaced that they would meet in December, on a show where Zerafa would have been guaranteed an undercard per the terms of his accepted step-aside compensation package.

The December date was pulled by Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) as Showtime—the platform on which it exclusively aired its shows—was in the process of bowing out of the boxing business.

PBC has since announced a deal with Amazon Prime, with plans to launch its new series in March. No firm dates or fights have been revealed either for its platform debut or in events to come.

All told, it has left Zerafa (31-4, 19KOs) out of the ring since a November 2022 unanimous decision victory over then-unbeaten Danilo Creati in Sydney. The win was his fourth in a row, including two straight over unbeaten opposition and a streak which began with a first-round knockout of faded Australian legend Anthony Mundine in March 2021.

Zerafa was previously ordered to face Esquiva Falcao in what would have been for the vacant title fight. Efforts to extend the 30-day negotiation period was initially agreed upon by all parties but withdrawn by Top Rank, Falcao’s promoter who instead called for an immediate purse bid hearing. Zerafa abandoned the process by that point and instead entered talks with Lara for a shot at his WBA middleweight title.

Nearly a year later, Zerafa is left with nothing to show for it.

 “I’ve worked my entire life and dedicated everything to this sport and haven't come this far to only come this far,” Zerafa told BoxingScene.com. “Come fight night whether it's Danny Garcia or Erislandy Lara, I will have my hand raised and there will be a new WBA world champion in the division.”

Lara (29-3-3, 17KOs) has not fought since a May 2022 eighth-round knockout of Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan for his lone title defense. That bout was his first since his upgrade to full titlist and more than a year after his previous outing when he knocked out Thomas ‘Cornflake’ LaManna in the first-round of a May 2021 vacant WBA ‘Regular’ middleweight title fight.

BoxingScene has learned that the WBA has yet to act on the matter, despite efforts from Zerafa’s team to have the sanctioning body re-order the mandatory. The sanctioning body has not ordered any fights in more than a month nor has it acted on the ones whose deadlines expired and await instructions for a purse bid hearing. Middleweight is one of ten divisions stuck in a holding pattern as a result of the WBA’s inability to enforce its own rules.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. X (formerly Twitter): @JakeNDaBox