No Limit Boxing CEO George Rose has labelled Michael Zerafa's team "unprofessional" as his highly anticipated grudge match with Tim Tszyu is in danger of falling apart.
With just eight days until fight night, Zerafa's team have threatened to pull out, citing concerns around potential travel restrictions between Victoria and New South Wales.
Zerafa is scheduled to fly straight to Newcastle early next week, but his team is worried about the return flight to Melbourne.
Newcastle is not a COVID-19 hot spot, and sits outside the Greater Sydney lockdowns.
"It's a surprise to us. For a professional athlete, you expect the team to conduct themselves like professionals," Rose said on Fox Sports on Tuesday.
"You see this weekend, there's eight NRL games, eight AFL games and we've seen the NBL follow their rules."
From Andrew and Jason Moloney, to George Kambosos and a host of high-profile UFC fighters, post-travel quarantine has become the norm for Australian and New Zealand fighters over the past year.
Former middleweight UFC champion Rob Whittaker has spent a total of a month and a half in hotel quarantine following his three fights overseas in the past 11 months.
Meanwhile, Andrew Moloney has quarantined twice, including an agonising two-week spell in December following his disgraceful no-contest in his rematch with Joshua Franco.
Spare a thought also for Jamie Weetch, who spent two weeks in lockdown in Perth after he was beaten inside a round by Issac Hardman in Townsville last August.
"We've got Australian boxers who aren't getting the attention Michael Zerafa's getting who are going into lockdown to fight for world titles overseas and putting in the hard yards and putting themselves in uncomfortable situations to be able to excel in their given sport," Rose said.
"For us, it's very surprising that Michael would be so unprofessional to be eight days out from a fight and threatening to pull out of such a big fight.
"It's the biggest boxing card in Australia this year. It's a very big surprise to us."
No Limit have staged four pay-per-view events since COVID hit, including Tszyu's fights in Townsville, Sydney and Newcastle and Paul Gallen's clash with Lucas Browne in Wollongong.
"A fighter's health and safety is right at the top of our priorities - that's really important to us," Rose said.
"We've spoken to the Victorian COVID response team, to New South Wales health and we're speaking to the guys at the top who make those decisions, who ensure us we're doing the right things to put on a COVID-safe and healthy event.
"We've done everything we can to make sure we'll have a COVID-safe event, and there's no reason left for them to not participate in it.
"They've got approval to travel to Newcastle, to participate in the fight and travel back home safely."
If the fight doesn't go ahead next week, Rose says there are no plans to reschedule.
"If you're the type of person to walk away from a fight eight days from the event, it's something that tarnishes your reputation and legacy," he said.
"I don't think it's something we'd look at doing again if he was to walk away from it. You just don't do that in boxing.
"It's just not on."