Australian Jeff Horn, who shot to fame three years ago with his upset victory over Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao, is contemplating on retiring from boxing after recently absorbing another crushing defeat.
Horn was bamboozled in eight rounds last week by Tim Tszyu in a junior middleweight (154 lbs) contest. The unbeaten Tszyu, the son of former world junior welterweight (140 lbs) king and Russian-born Kostya Tszyu, knocked down Horn twice and consistently battered him until the referee decided to stop the fight at the end of the eighth round.
Horn talked tough going into the ring but offered token opposition once the bell rang. He tried to use the same dirty tactics he employed against Pacquiao, but Tszyu, younger and bigger, stood his ground. As it turned out, Horn was not in tip-top condition and was already huffing and puffing after the second round. Horn resorted to incessant holding, but a body shot from Tszyu almost deflated him in the sixth round. Horn’s trainer, Glenn Rushton, was seen trying to push Horn to come out for the ninth round, but referee Phil Austin had seen enough and decided to pull the plug before the start of the round.
Horn was a virtual unknown when he scored a controversial unanimous decision over then WBO welterweight champion Pacquiao in July 2017 before a mammoth crowd in his hometown of Brisbane. The decision was assailed by observers, with no less than noted trainer and analyst Teddy Atlas telling Horn in his face that he lost the fight.
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Horn used a lot of dirty tactics which included headbutts, illegal blows and elbows that left Pacquiao bloodied. Still, Pacquiao landed the cleaner blows and the post-fight punch statistics showed that he outlanded Horn in overall punches. In the ninth round, a relentless Pacquiao almost knocked out Horn.
Horn relished the victory to the hilt and insisted that he deserved the win even though everybody thought Pacquiao was robbed. Instead of acknowledging that he got away with a close call, Horn irritated many by implying that he won because there was really nothing special about Pacquiao.
Well, as succeeding events showed, Horn was the one-trick pony. Within a year after beating Pacquiao, Horn lost the WBO welterweight title to American Terence Crawford via a one-sided knockout in nine rounds. The following year, August 2019, Horn was knocked out in nine rounds by countryman Michael Zerafa. The recent knockout loss to Tszyu was Horn’s second defeat in his last three fights.
After losing to Crawford, Horn actually tried to pursue a rematch with Pacquiao. Obviously, Horn just wanted to make money at the expense of Pacquiao as he was already damaged goods after the Crawford fight. Pacquiao did not take the bait and instead fought Keith Thurman in July 2019.
At 41, Pacquiao currently sits as the WBA ‘super’ welterweight champion, an honor he earned after an impressive decision victory over Thurman.
Horn, for his part, is pondering on calling it a day. He plans to talk to his family and then make a clear-cut decision. If he does walk away, Horn will finish his career with a record of 20-3 with 13 knockouts.
Horn will always look back at the upset win over Pacquiao as his major accomplishment though it was a controversial one. Truth be told, Horn got lucky and that’s all there was to it.
