Hitting out at Rushton

Zerafa slams Horn camp

BOXING:

Jeff Horn and Michael Zerafa traded verbal barbs in a heated press conference for their blockbuster rematch.

Zerafa and his camp went after Horn’s trainer Glenn Rushton in the face-to-face meeting – piling pressure on the veteran boxing mentor following his controversial decision not to throw in the towel during Zerafa’s stunning ninth round TKO victory in Bendigo in August.

Speaking ahead of their rematch at Brisbane Exhibition and Entertainment Centre tomorrow night, Zerafa and cotrainer Blake Caparello took shots at Rushton after Horn’s own father criticised the decision to allow Horn to fight deep into the ninth round despite being on the receiving end of a vicious beating.

Zerafa landed the shot of the press conference when caught in an argument with Rushton about the boxing IQ of Horn and his famous win over Manny Pacquiao at Suncorp Stadium.

“Jeff’s done everything that I want to do, but his team, I don’t know... I don’t really understand them,” he said of Rushton’s handling of their first fight.

Rushton then interjected to defend himself.

“Understand that this is the team that took him... in under four years to beat the fighter of the decade and win a world title,” he said.

“Have you won a world title yet?”

When Zerafa refused to give Horn’s boxing IQ respect for his win over Pacquiao, Rushton again shot back: “Are you saying that Manny Pacquiao has a poor boxing IQ”.

Zerafa then landed a heavy verbal shot.

“Did I say that? You must be as dumb as your haircut,” Zerafa said.

“I want to end Jeff Horn’s career … it’s a must-win for me. I have to win.”

Rushton, however, declared Horn has been a different fighter this training camp and expects his fighter to prove he is a “beast” tomorrow night.

“On Wednesday night you are going to see a completely different person in front of you. You are going to see a beast,” Rushton said.

“I don’t know if it’s beauty and the beast, but let’s call it pretty boy and the beast. You are certainly going to see a beast.”

If Zerafa wins, his camp is looking towards a possible 2020 bout with unbeaten worldranked Sydney light middleweight Tim Tszyu, who said last week he would love to fight the winner of Zerafa-Horn.