Former World champion Jeff Horn gained revenge in spectacular style in his middleweight title rematch with Michael Zerafa, the Queenslander defeating the Melbourne based Zerafa on a majority points decision after flooring the Victorian twice in an epic ninth round to seal the triumph.
Two judges gave the verdict comfortably to Horn, while the third scored the contest a draw.
The win turned the form book on its head as Zerafa, who had been the outsider before he pulled off a shock win when the pair clashed in Bendigo in late August, this time went in as the favourite.
But he had no answer to Horn’s all action, hustling style as the former world welterweight champion left him battered and bruised, his pride as grievously wounded as his body.
”There were no excuses,” Zerafa admitted in the ring immediately after the fight.
Horn began aggressively, as is his wont, with the packed-out crowd of Queenslanders enthusiastically chanting his nickname, ‘Hornet, Hornet’, and set about unnerving the taller Zerafa right from the outset.
In his second fight as a middleweight, Horn looked fitter and sharper than he had when he first lost to Zerafa in the upset nearly four months earlier, and it was he who set to impose himself and dictate the rhythm and tempo of the fight.
The tactics weren’t unexpected by Zerafa, who had consistently said in the lead-up to the contest that Horn only knew one way to fight – on the front foot – and that his own superior ”boxing IQ” would eventually see the same result.
But he had perhaps underestimated Horn’s desire, his commitment to being much fitter and his aggression – and it was the Queenslander who set the pace and in the end handed out the fighting lesson.
Even though he sustained a first round cut – possibly from a clash of heads as the pair frequently came into close contact – Horn kept hustling and crowding forward while Zerafa looked to keep him at bay with his nine-centimetre reach advantage.
Zerafa strengthened in the contest as he began to find his range in the third round, the pair tangling and trading blows. The Melbourne fighter tried to find his flow, keeping his distance and looking to pick Horn off as he charged in.
Horn connected with a solid blow which looked to rock Zerafa in the latter stages of the fourth round and as he moved in to try to tie him up in the corner this was a much more purposeful, effective Horn than the one who, according to his trainer Glenn Rushton, had underestimated the threat posed by Zerafa the first time they met.
Horn got a talking to from the referee in the fifth round for repeatedly holding on to the back of Zerafa’s neck but still he kept coming, disrupting Zerafa’s rhythm and catching him continually as the titleholder struggled to come to grips with his challenger.
By the end of the fifth, at the halfway point, Horn had seized the initiative. Could he keep it going?
Zerafa knew that he would have to increase his workload and start to make inroads into the early lead that Horn had built up if he was to avoid seeing his dream of big fights all over the world disappear, but still Horn kept coming although Zerafa managed to land a couple of decent punches.
The crowd was clearly having an effect on the two combatants, Horn buoyed by the noise and the exhortations of his home fans.
Zerafa had said he would take the crowd out of the equation, but when the seventh round ended he knew he would have to produce something special in the last three.
Horn stuck fast, moving aggressively and not allowing Zerafa to control the distance and pace of the fight as he had done in Bendigo.
The difference between the Horn who took such a savage battering in country Victoria and the man who thrilled his army of fans in his home city was stark.
But Zerafa, knowing that his title was at stake, came out all guns blazing in the ninth round and launched a series of attacks which left Horn dazed, and his strength appeared to be sapped as he took a barrage of blows to the head, and body, his eye bleeding and his tired legs no longer able to move as easily as before.
Referee John Cauci called a timeout in with a minute remaining of the ninth round so that Horn’s cut eye could be examined.
Zerafa moved in for what he hoped would be the kill, but in the end it was some heavy punches from Horn which completely turned the round on its head and guaranteed Horn the victory.
Zerafa was felled by a right which sent him tumbling to the canvas, and then Horn followed up with a second which also saw Zerafa take another count.
He was going to need a knockout in the last round, but that never looked likely, and Horn wore the smile of a man who knew he had gained revenge in the best possible fashion.
UNDERCARD WRAP Queenslander Liam Wilson is now the IBF Super Featherweight world youth titleholder after he comprehensively beat Argentinian challenger Mauro Perouene after 10 action-packed rounds.
The Australian was the aggressor throughout the contest, but the South American showed toughness and spirit to stay in the fight right to the end after being sent to the canvas in the first round.
