Jeff Horn still has title aspirations, but will now be aiming to do so at middleweight.
Although Horn is currently focused on facing Michael Zerafa on August 31, the former welterweight champion hopes to soon fight for the WBA's secondary title, currently being held by Rob Brant. Long gone are his days at 147 pounds, where he towered nearly everyone in his one-year reign as WBO champion from 2017 to 2018, but now Horn is fighting at a much more natural weight at 160 pounds.
After Horn beats Zerafa -- if he beats Zerafa -- then he is targeting Brant's title and looking to fight him after Brant's next title defense. Brant will face former titlist Ryota Murata on July 12 in Japan in a rematch of their October 2018 fight in Las Vegas, where Brant dominated Murata en route to a decisive title win.
“I will definitely be watching that fight,” Horn told The Australian. “They are both very good fighters and both of them would be hard to beat. Brant has that come forward, non-stop style which can be very exhausting. Murata has a bit of skill behind him. I think he is a bit more skillful than Brant. It will be hard either way. I have to get through Zerafa. He is a big risk to be taking. I didn’t want a easy fight. Zerafa is one of the best in Australia.”
Five months after Horn lost the WBO welterweight title to Terence Crawford in June 2018, the Australian fighter moved up to middleweight for his next fight, which was a first-round knockout win over former champion Anthony Mundine. Since then, Horn would go on to be ranked in the top five on both the WBA and WBO rankings at 160 pounds.
