A relaxed Jeff Horn stayed cool while tempers flared and temperatures soared in Brisbane on Monday, in the buildup to his middleweight boxing rematch with Michael Zerafa.
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Horn's trainer Glenn Rushton traded barbs with counterpart Blake Caparello and Zerafa in the final press conference before the fighters square off on Wednesday.
The insults flew while the mercury outside soared to 39 degrees Celsius.
Even Horn's father Jeff Sr and one of the fight sponsors chucked verbal grenades in the direction of the Zerafa camp.
Horn's dad suggested world ranked light heavyweight Caparello, who is acting as Zerafa's head trainer this week because Sam La Bruna doesn't fly, was the "weakest link" in the team.
Victorian Zerafa at one stage used the f-word , while former WBO welterweight champion Horn, who lost their first fight, refused to engage in hostilities.
"It's a waste of energy to me, those guys are wasting their energy and their team is getting all fired up, Michael Zerafa is getting all fired up," Horn told AAP.
"I don't know if that's Glenn's ploy to try and weaken them a little bit and stir them up or not, but it certainly happened and I was sitting back and relaxing."
Horn said a second straight loss wouldn't necessarily cause him to retire and asserted he could do a lot better than the first fight where he was stopped in the ninth round.
Zerafa meanwhile will still be getting advice from La Bruna who will text message through to his corner during the fight.
"Whatever comes out of Sam's mouth is in Blakey's ears so we do everything as a team. It's going to be exactly the same as having Sam there, but with Blake in my corner," Zerafa told AAP.
Zerafa insisted he had the superior power and boxing IQ.
"My boxing IQ is dropping talking to you,"' Zerafa fired at Rushton.
"I'm going to hit Jeff that hard, you'll feel it.
Taking aim at Horn, Zerafa said: "You don't have my power, I'm going to knock you out, I'm ending your f----ing career."
Rushton said Zerafa had trained like a "crazy man" and "maniac" for the first fight and doubted he could work any harder, but insisted Horn hadn't been at his best.
"Did Jeff underestimate Michael? I think so," Rushton said.
"He was out for too long; he had too long a break with his second child and I think he was back for too short for a time.
"I'm actually very appreciative of Michael Zerafa because I think it's the wake up call that Jeff needed, he was just taking things a little bit easy.
"I think he's been woken up; now we've awaken the giant within."
Australian Associated Press
