WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn (18-0-1, 12 KOs) believes mandatory challenger Terence Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs) is trying to play mind games with him.

The two sides were set to fight in April at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, but the contest was pushed back after Crawford withdrew with a hand injury. Initially the contest was going to happen in New York City at Madison Square Garden, before shifting to Las Vegas. 

Top Rank, who lead the promotion of the card, rescheduled the fight for June 9th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

And recently, the camps of both boxers were fighting over the gloves of choice for the contest - after initially it was said that Crawford would use the controversial Everlast MX horsehair gloves.

But on Sunday, Crawford’s trainer Brian McIntyre insisted that his fighter would not use those gloves.

Horn is not bothered by any of the pre-fight drama.

“I think the Crawford team are trying to play mind games, changing the date, changing the venue, postponing the fight and now changing the gloves,’’ Horn said to Courier Mail.

“I knew they would be throwing curve balls at me left, right and centre. But not much fazes me and I’m ready for anything. It just motivates me. It doesn’t matter what gloves I wear. When I hit the guy it’s going to hurt him.’’

Horn’s trainer Glenn Rushton is actually shocked that the Everlast MX gloves have yet to be banned from the sport.

During his career, Floyd Mayweather refused to fight anyone who wore the Everlast MX. 

“It amazes me that there are no standardised specifications for boxing gloves,’’ he said.

“The only stipulation is weight and that’s appalling because in some gloves you can push all the weight of the padding away from the knuckles.

“There should be uniform rules over the thickness of the padding and for the density of the foam.’’