THE BULLIED IS NOW THE BULLY (PHOTOS)
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 03 Jul 2017
Newly crowned WBO world welterweight champion Jeff Horn of Brisbane, Australia loves to tell his story on how he started boxing ? that he was bullied in school ? which forced him to go into Glenn Rushton's gym, his current trainer, in order to protect himself. But that decision had completely changed Horn life's direction. He went on to win state and national titles and eventually competed in the London Olympics in 2012.
After racking up 16 wins (and 1 draw) since turning professional on March 1, 2013, Horn, who was now ranked No. 1 in the WBO's welterweight division, was pitted against WBO champion Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao Sunday in Brisbane in front of more than 50,000 of his compatriots.
Not many had given Horn much chance to defeat Pacquiao ? and actually he didn't, except on the judges' scorecards ? but his team had a plan which, like it or not, actually worked out, if only to the eyes of the judges: become the bully.
Australian boxing great, the 'Marrickville Mauler' Jeff Fenech, advised Horn to drag Pacquiao down to the gutter. ? And literally Horn followed that advise to the letter. Being taller, bigger, heavier and younger, Horn headbutts, headlocks, grapples, slams, elbows and does every little dirty trick in the book to take Pacquiao out of his comfort zone.
In Pacquiao's heyday, you can't do this kind of thing to him as his speed and power will eat you out alive and the most likely scenario is you will find yourself at the seat of your pants in no time at all. But the present version of an older Pacquiao, who is now accustomed to the refined etiquette of the halls of the Philippine senate and who treats boxing as an afterthought, apparently could no longer cope up with that kind of aggression.
Photos by Wendell Alinea / OSMP.
Manny Pacquiao connects with a right at Jeff Horn during a 9th round action in their WBO world welterweight championship bout at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia Sunday.
The whirling dervish and buzz-saw version of the Pacman came out in round 9 disfiguring and bloodied Horn's pretty face and almost forced Referee Mark Nelson to stop the fight. In the older version of Pacquiao, who lunges and dances all over the ring throwing an unlimited number of power bombs in every round, he should have finished the job in the very next round. But there he was, in round 10, mouth wide open breathing heavily, clearly gassed out, throwing only a few punches, allowing Horn to recover and narrowed the fight.
Pacquiao clearly is getting old and has slowed down ? and treating boxing as a sideline does not help. After the fight, he said he wants a rematch with Horn. A fierce competitor, he will. But next time around, Horn may actually beat him.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Dong Secuya.
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