Horn, Tszyu venue fight

A WAR of words has already erupted over the hosting rights of the planned $6 million bout between Jeff Horn and Tim Tszyu next year.

Horn’s promoter Dean Lonergan confirmed talks have begun with Tszyu’s promoter Matt Rose regarding the fight, however he slammed suggestions Tszyu is the “A side” of the event.

Rose said: “Tim Tszyu got twice as many people to attend his fight against Jack Brubaker as what Jeff Horn got against [Michael] Zerafa last night.

“Tim Tszyu has got a bigger following in Australia than Horn now. So Tim is the A side, and Horn will have to come to Sydney to fight him. If Horn wants to be the pound-for-pound No.1 fighter in Australia, he’s got to beat Tim Tszyu, because beating Zerafa doesn’t make him the pound-forpound best.”

Nearly 2000 fans cheered Horn to victory against Zerafa at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre on Wednesday night, while 4000 spectators watched Tszyu stop Brubaker a fortnight ago in Sydney.

“Matt Rose and Tim

Tszyu are delusional if they think he is a bigger name in Australian boxing than Jeff Horn, they are kidding themselves,” Lonergan said.

“For the first fight against Zerafa in Bendigo, where Jeff is not from, we got 4500 people into the arena.

“Tim has done nothing in his career except fight club fighters from Sydney.

“Stack up Tim’s opponents. Where is Manny Pacquiao, where is Randall Bailey, where is Terence Crawford or Anthony Mundine or Michael Zerafa?

“Tim hasn’t fought one fighter who looks like they’d come close to a world title.”