Soft Crawford told to toughen up

BOXING: Jeff Horn’s angry camp have labelled Terence Crawford soft and believes the American has conceded a huge psychological edge after delaying their world title fight due to injury.

Unbeaten Crawford earned the ire of WBO welterweight champion Horn’s camp after sensationally delaying their April 14 bout in Las Vegas due to what was described as a “slight hand injury”.

The bout is now set to be held in May or early June after Crawford injured his right hand during a sparring session almost exactly one month before their fight scheduled for Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas.

Horn’s trainer Glenn Rushton seemed baffled that Crawford would delay the fight due to an injury he claimed boxers suffer “almost every day at training”.

“He seems to me a bit soft. Toughen up princess,” he said.

“With a slight hand injury I wouldn’t see the need in Australia to postpone the fight – I think Terence needs to harden up a bit.

“Jeff had eight stitches (in his forehead) three weeks out from his last fight. It was a bad injury and he missed 36 rounds of boxing but still went out and fought.

“A slight hand injury? Put some cortisone into it and let’s get it on.”

Rushton believed Crawford’s injury excuse had given Horn (pictured) a huge mental advantage before the fight which is now pencilled in for May 19.

“We think now he is not as tough as we thought he was,” Rushton said.

“We will treat it as a psychological edge, use this as a positive and train even harder.”

Horn admitted he had been devastated by the news which delayed his US fight debut.

“I am frustrated. Hopefully it is an injury and not a tactic to try and throw us off our game,” he said.