There is no love lost between Michael Zerafa and Jeff Horn.
The archrivals and their teams traded barbs at the final press conference ahead of their rematch at the Brisbane Exhibition and Entertainment Centre on Wednesday night.
Zerafa and his camp attacked Horn’s trainer Glenn Rushton for allowing the first fight to continue when Horn was dropped and badly hurt before being stopped in the ninth round in Bendigo in August.
The shot of the day came from Zerafa during a heated exchange with Rushton about Horn’s boxing IQ and his famous win over Manny Pacquiao at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane two years ago.
“Jeff’s done everything that I want to do, but his team, I don’t know… I don’t really understand them,” Zerafa said of Rushton’s decision to let the first fight continue.
Rushton jumped in 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? …Are you saying that Manny Pacquiao has a poor boxing IQ?”
Zerafa immediately responded with a heavy verbal counterpunch.
“Did I say that? You must be as dumb as your haircut,” Zerafa said.
“My boxing IQ is dropping talking to you.
“I want to end Jeff Horn’s career… it’s a must-win for me. I have to win.
“He’s not at my level and when I hear this kind of talk — it’s fake. It’s actually funny.
“He (Rushton) made a stupid decision last fight and he always makes stupid decisions.
“He’s got to look after his fighter.”
Co-trainer and light heavyweight contender Blake Caparello added: “The pressure is going to be on Glenn to make sure he’s not taking too much punishment.”
Rushton insisted that there would be a different version of Horn in the ring on Wednesday night than the sluggish version who was comprehensively outboxed just four months ago.
“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.”
