By Ray Wheatley — World of Boxing
Former WBO welterweight champion Jeff “The Hornet” Horn (20-2-1, 13 KOs) turned the tables on WBO #4, WBA #7, IBF #13 middleweight Michael Zerafa (27-4, 16 KOs) over ten action rounds to win a majority decision in their rematch on Wednesday night at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in Brisbane Australia.
Horn came out aggressively in round one, but suffered a cut over his left eye. Horn continued to dictate the pace as he kept up a consistent attack that had Zerafa on the back move. As the fight progressed, both fighters landed big shots. Zerafa was cut over the right eye in round five.
Zerafa rocked Horn badly in round nine and looked about to finish him, but the bout was halted by referee John Cauchi to allow the ring doctor to examine Horn’s cut. When action resumed, Zerafa continued his assault and then out of nowhere Horn connected with a huge right hand that dropped Zerafa! Zerafa beat the count but another Horn right came in that knocked him down again. In the end, scores were 98-90, 97-92 and 94-94. The WBA Oceania and WBO Oriental title were on the line.
Zerafa stopped Horn in nine rounds in their first bout.
Unbeaten super featherweight Liam Wilson (5-0, 3 KOs) scored a bloody ten round unanimous decision over Mauro Perouene (11-3-1, 6 KOs) for the vacant IBF Youth title. Wilson dropped Perouene in round one, then get dropped himself after the bell! The bout ended up going the full ten with Wilson winning 100-89, 99-90, 100-89.
Super middleweight Tej Pratap Singh (16-4-3, 8 KOs) won an eight round majority decision over former IBO titlist Renold Quinlan (12-7, 8 KOs). Scores were 77-75, 78-74, 76-76. Quinlan lost his fifth straight fight.
Unbeaten welterweight Andrew Hunt (6-0-1, 3 KOs) won an eight round unanimous decision over Czar Amonsot (25-4-3, 22 KOs). Scores were 80-72, 80-72, 80-72.
Horn still needs to hang up the cloves, he got lucky and should have a 3rd fight with Zerafa.
How is it that the judge gets to stop the round to see that Horn is okay. That doesn’t make any sense. Zerafa would have won but for that brain snap by the referee. In my opinion the referee lost control early on. Horn should have been deducted a point for some of his consistent clenching antics. Bring on fight three in Melbourne.
They can glamourize Horn’s win all they want, but he will be put in harm’s way boxing in the top tier of belt holders. Horn needs to let his pride go adrift and call it a day before he is haunted with a diagnosis of CTE. No cure for such a syndrome and his style of fighting is tailor-made for CTE.
couldnt agree with you more scooby dooby,so many boxers become punch drunk as my Dad used to say,too many hits to the head he’d say and being hit or just being in the ring was the drug
Good for him.
Must have respect for Horn, he has proved he has real guts, but that said he is too brave for his own good. Agree as Scooby Doo’s remarks, he is going to end up damaging his health. Really also too small for middleweight.
Now it’s time for the great Horn to unify all the belts in welter, light middle and middleweight. After that Canalo can say goodbye to his belts. All of them, he might even have to use suspenders.
The ref may have been hoping the ringside doctor would stop it on cuts, but that ringside doctor was really quick and told the ref to let it go. Though there was not that much of a lull in Zerafa trying to finish off Horn at that moment the ref jumped in, but still, that right that came out of nowhere took a potential 10-8 round away from Zerafa and gave Horn a 10-7 round. Horn can get a title fight now at 154, I still think Zerafa or Horn should get the Tim Tszyu fight, but I doubt Tim Tszyu fights over a 154 lbs weigh in. Zerafa should still get the fight with Murata, Tszyu or Brook, either one Zerafa or Horn can get the same fights to me. But Zerafa losing round 9 by a 10-7 margin, and losing the 10th by 10-9, unless he won 7 rounds, how can he claim he won by a 94-93 score? He could have won 6-3-1 in rounds with a 10-8 round in the 9th, by a 95-94 score.
Sounds like this fraud horn got saved in his hometown by the ref and probably got a dubious scorecard too. But, go ahead and give him a big fight at 160 so he can get demolished, and we don’t have to hear about him anymore or his s*** country.
‘Sounds like’? You’ve lost all credibility right there. Best go actually watch the fight before you mouth off. What happened – did we bump your visa application? Did an Aussie girl reject you at school holiday camp 40 years ago? Poor old fella, you’re always so bitter and grumpy
just like America