Jeff Horn Upset In Middleweight Title Quest, Stopped By Michael Zerafa -Ninth Round
Written – Scottie “The Context” White
From the out-back to the center square kept Horn close to wild side in his own backyard. Only his second raucous at middleweight for a title birth, would evaporate in a ninth round knock out benediction.
A fight for Horn who career has sense boomeranged following his epic – clouded victory over future hall of famer Manny Pacquiao.
?Jeff Horn (19-2-1, 13KOs)?Michael Zerafa (27-3, 16KOs)
Horn contingency wasn’t a secret to his boxing plans, his projection was to win this fight verse Zerafa and escalate his name to the championship tier for a ticketed showdown with Ryota Murata.
The graded effort for Horn during the this clash wasn’t as bad to its bantered results. Horn dropped in the second, pushing past a bad cut from a clash of heads and repelling Zerafa offensive barrage did enough to survive for a ninth round attendance.
Zerafa advantage every bit of his surge to dismantle Horn with surgical power shots dropping him again. Horn attended the count on unsteady legs as the referee allowed the fight to continue, Horn was pelted with a blistering punch set forcing the fight to close inside the limit 2:24/ninth round.
Misfortunes seem to plague Horn title bids on the staging area for his running itinerary. This would be the second time attempt to shine for the Aussie at this weight. He would decline a 2M dollar purse to face off against former chip holder Rob Brant following the birth of his child, then a fight verse Zerafa to solidify his bid for a crack toward a two-way middleweight affliction with Murata, is all but a distant memory now.
Calibrating his only defeat up to date, was with boxing P4P appointee WBO Terence Crawford in a welterweight headliner when he was stopped in the 9th-round. Choosing to contend two weight classes up, his ratio tallies two-defeats out his last three outings but one-for-one on the rails of his middleweight journey. Now, Horn has to reignite the glow from his first round stoppage of Anthony Mundine, coral his team and sit in for an honest career reset on what to do next.
With only two defeats registering in neighboring divisions, Horn has time to regroup. We can scrub the middleweight dominion all in good fun, track a suitable next one up for Horn once he returns but the course of action lye heavy in the mental clemency of the former world champion three-way directional fork. Focus – Motivation – Drive.