Former welterweight titleholder Jeff Horn will stay home in Australia for his next fight as he will take on fellow countryman Michael Zerafa.
According to a report from ESPN, Horn will take on Zerafa at the newly-constructed Bendigo Stadium in Bendigo, Victoria on August 31. The fight will be contested at middleweight, Horn's second straight bout above 154 pounds.
The 31-year-old Horn once held the WBO welterweight title after an upset win over Manny Pacquiao in controversial fashion back in 2017. A rematch was planned for later that year, but it never materialized, leaving Horn to take on Gary Corcoran in December 2017. After winning that fight, Horn would go on to lose his WBO title to Terence Crawford in the summer of 2018 in Las Vegas.
Since that loss to Crawford, Horn would go on to face former world champion Anthony Mundine last November in Brisbane, Australia. Horn dropped Mundine a little more than a minute into the fight and the referee waived off the count and stopped the fight, awarding Horn the victory and the WBA Oceania and WBO Oriental middleweight belts. Horn is currently ranked in the top five in both the WBA and WBO rankings at 160 pounds.
Zerafa has held a number of regional titles at both junior middleweight and middleweight having faced the likes of Kell Brook and Peter Quillin throughout his career. After losing a 12-round decision to Zerafa last December, Zerafa knocked out Les Sherrington in the second round of their April bout.
