What's next for Michael Zerafa and Jeff Horn?

Michael ‘Pretty Boy’ Zerafa 27-3 (16) wants to replace Jeff ‘The Hornet’ Horn 19-2-1 (13) in the opposite corner to WBA ‘regular’ middleweight champion Ryōta Murata 15-2 (12) in Japan on December 23.

The Melbourne middleweight contender defied the bookmakers’ odds to become just the second pro boxer to defeat Horn after his stunning ninth-round knockout of the Queenslander in Bendigo, Victoria on Saturday night.

Zerafa, 27, joins three-weight world champion Terence Crawford 35-0 (26) as the only other boxer to defeat Horn in the punch-for-pay ranks. The pound-for-pound rated American annexed Horn’s WBO welterweight championship in June last year with a ninth-round TKO of the Australian at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The 31-year-old Horn was promised a shot at 2012 Olympic gold medalist Murata by Top Rank boss Bob Arum later this year – providing he got past Zerafa in impressive fashion.

Now Zerafa believes he is entitled to the shot at the 32-year-old Japanese star.

“We want that fight,” he said. “My team and I will obviously sit down and talk… but now we just celebrate with the team and everybody that stuck by me.”

After the fight Zerafa thanked Horn for giving him the opportunity to break through to another level in his career.

"I can’t thank you enough for giving me this opportunity," he said. "I knew 10 weeks ago I could win this fight. I knew I could beat Jeff Horn."

Earlier this year rising star Tim Tszyu 14-0 (10) said he wanted to face Zerafa in his effort to clean out his own backyard before continuing his career on the international stage.

Zerafa scoffed at the idea: "Tim Tszyu… please."

Horn was shattered by his own performance but praised Zerafa for his brilliant boxing display.

"I’m just a bit shattered," Horn said. "I have had some ups and downs, this is definitely a down. I just felt really sluggish, it is really annoying using that as an excuse but I just felt like crap going into it.

"Well done to Michael, he outboxed me, landed those beautiful shots but I don’t feel like it was the best me in there tonight.

"I felt a little bit off, heavy, sluggish. I don’t know if it was something I did, something I ate, just wasn’t the right me.

"I fought like crap just then but well done to Michael because he fought brilliantly."

Horn, who has boxed just 96 seconds since his world title loss to Crawford 14 months ago when he blew away countryman Anthony Mundine in little more than half a round in November, couldn’t explain his subpar performance against Zerafa.

“I felt like I couldn’t get my shots off, they weren’t landing as good as I wanted, it was frustrating me from pretty much the beginning,” he said.

“I don’t want to use the excuse: ‘I’ve been sick’. All props to Michael Zerafa for winning the fight.”

Zerafa, who dropped a competitive 12-round decision to Kell Brook in Sheffield, England last December, revealed he engaged the services of a sports psychologist to help him mentally prepare for his fight against Horn.

"I called this weeks ago, I said Jeff will fall and I went out there and proved it," Zerafa said.

There is a rematch clause in the contract which would allow Horn to pursue an immediate return bout with Zerafa, although it is unclear at this stage whether he will pursue it, move down in weight or even possibly retire.

"I definitely don’t want to be doing this game for too long that’s for sure, you don’t want to be battered up and bruised," said Horn.

The loss has already forced Horn to start reflecting on his preparation and what he wants to do for his career going forward.

"I’ve got to do some soul-searching and see if I’ve got what it takes in myself to do hard preparation and get ready for another big fight like this," Horn said.

Coach Glenn Rushton highlighted some significant changes that would need to be made if Horn wants to seriously compete at 160-pounds.

"We’ve got to sit down and have that long, hard talk and say exactly what does that look like, diet-wise, work-wise and really put the effort in," Rushton said.

"If it’s going to be at middleweight it means we’ve got to change the body structure a little bit and not eat pizzas and drink Coke.

"Middleweight to me doesn’t mean that you eat whatever you want, it means that you’ve obviously got to be very disciplined.

"I think Jeff realises, you’ve got to have that lean muscle mass, at middle and you’ve got to be a ripped middle, which means a lot of hard work if you want to go that route."

Zerafa dominated the fight from the get-go, dropping him in the second round and getting stronger as the rounds progressed. Working behind a stiff jab, Zerafa dictated the action with accurate right hands and jarring right uppercuts that left Horn wary of wading in.

A head clash during the third frame opened up a cut over Horn’s left eye but it was never a factor in the fight.

In the fatal ninth round Zerafa strafed Horn with a series of shots, stunning him with a right hand and dropping him in his own corner with another.

Horn surprisingly beat the count but was shipping massive punishment in Zerafa’s corner when the towel came in just as referee Ferlin Marsh waved off the fight with Horn crumpling to the canvas.