Gloves are off as Horn slams ’soft’ opponent

JEFF Horn’s team suspects the injury to Terence Crawford that has caused the shock postponement of their Las Vegas world title fight is just sleight of hand and that the frightened challenger is desperately trying to buy more time.

Horn and Crawford were due to fight on April 15 (Australian time) at the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas, but Crawford yesterday said that he had injured his right hand while sparring and would need to reschedule his challenge for Horn’s world welterweight title.

“I just think the bloke’s a bit soft,’’ said Horn’s trainer, martial arts whiz Glenn Rushton.

“It’s a case of ‘harden up, princess’. Jeff needed eight stitches in a head wound before his last fight and still went ahead with it.

“From what we’ve heard Crawford has suffered only a slight injury and it could easily be treated with a cortisone injection.

“Jeff has fought with much worse injuries than that.’’

Promoters Dean Lonergan and Bob Arum are looking at rescheduling the fight on May 19, again at the Mandalay Bay.

Horn said he hoped that Crawford’s injury was genuine and that the American, regarded by many as the best boxer in the world, was not just using it as a ploy to throw the Austra- lian world champ off his game.

“Crawford’s supporters reckon he’s so good that he could beat me with one hand,’’ Horn said. “Well, why doesn’t he give it a go, then?

“This is very frustrating because I’ve been training really hard and it means I have to go through it all again.

“It disturbs my preparation for another eight to 10 weeks.

“The fight is the fun part. It’s the training and the dieting that I really dread.”

Horn said he and Rushton would treat the postponement positively.

“It just means that Terence is not as tough as we thought,’’ Horn said.

“I’m going to train extra hard now and on fight night I’ll expose that lack of toughness. I’m bigger and stronger than him and now I know I’m much tougher, too.’’

Crawford is unbeaten in 32 fights and Horn is unbeaten in 19.