To butt heads, Horn insists

voluntary opponent ahead of a mandatory challenge against impressive American Terence Crawford. Corcoran, a tough Londoner with a Traveller background, and his camp are doing their best to unsettle Horn, a come-forward fighter who clashed heads with Pacquiao in the second round of their fight and came off second best.

Corcoran has threatened to bite Horn should the former Brisbane schoolteacher continually lead with his head, but backed away from that slightly yesterday when he said: “Have you seen me bite anyone in my other fights? We'll see, but it's not me.”

His trainer Greaves, however, was conceding nothing: “I do respect Jeff as a fighter . . . but he is dirty.”

Not surprisingly, Horn and his trainer, Glenn Rushton, denied the dirty tactics.

“Jeff is not a dirty fighter . . . he's the opposite – he does not lead with his head, he has never intentionally headbutted anyone. In fact I train him not to do that,” Rushton said.

Horn said: “It's a bit frightening when I hear about the biting stories, but he hasn't done it in the past and hopefully he doesn't this time. I'd like to be able to hear after this fight – I'd like to be able to hear ‘and still' [world champion] too.”

Rushton added of the 29-year-old Horn, who has fought many times in New Zealand on Parker's undercards: “We haven't dropped the ball, we've remained focused. If anything, Jeff is fitter than he was for the fight against Manny Pacquiao.

“Jeff has grown not only physically but he's also grown psychologically after that win. How could you not grow after you've beaten an 11-times world champion?”

Patrick McKendry travelled to Brisbane with assistance from Duco Events.