Bruiser lining up Horn
FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2019 themercury.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 1300 696 397 JEFF Horn’s family racehorse is chasing a hat-trick of victories at Caulfield tomorrow, but Melbourne’s heavy-hitting Michael Zerafa plans to brutally end any hopes the Brisbane hero has for a quinella.
Pumped up physically and psychologically, Zerafa goes to war with Horn at Bendigo Stadium a few hours after sixyear-old Bettyrae Ruby goes after the $125,000 Mare’s Handicap at Caulfield following back-to-back victories at Sandown.
While Horn, 31, will wager a couple of hundred on the family horse named after his grandparents and great-grandmother — an outback drover’s wife — the former world welterweight champ is punting with a $2 million world title shot by fighting the biggest opponent he has ever faced in the only city in the world named after a prize-fighter.
Zerafa is adamant Horn will do his dough at fight-time.
For the past 10 weeks, Zerafa, a 27-year-old from Melbourne’s northern suburbs, has been sparring opponents much bigger than Horn to increase his strength for what he expects will be “trench warfare’’.
“Strength has definitely been a focus for this fight,’’ Zerafa said. “I sparred with [75kg] Olympian Daniel Lewis and [80kg] Blake Caparello. “Horn thinks I’m just a long-range counter-puncher but I plan to out-muscle him up close as well.’’
The weight limit for the fight is more than 5.5kg above the welterweight division in which Horn beat Manny Pacquiao two years ago.
“The big motivating factor for me is personal pride and love for my family,’’ said Horn who is in Bendigo with wife Jo and his two daughters Isabelle, 20 months and Charlotte, two months.
“Pride makes me fight hard and the love for my family drives me on because I’ve got two daughters who’ll be teenagers before I know it and teenage girls can be expensive.’’
Horn has rented a house for his family in Bendigo — the city named after 19th-century British bare-knuckle fighter Bendigo Thompson — and he has even had a $15,000 Tempur bed shipped in to replicate the sleeping arrangements at his Sunnybank home.