By Keith Idec
Glenn Rushton doesn’t consider Jeff Horn’s huge upset of Manny Pacquiao just a great moment for boxing in Australia.
Horn’s trainer considers their 12-round, back-and-forth slugfest the “Fight of the Year” for the entire sport thus far in 2017. Brisbane’s Horn survived serious trouble in the ninth round, as well as a cut and swelling around his right eye, to beat Pacquiao by unanimous decision at Suncorp Stadium in Horn’s hometown.
The controversial conclusion to their WBO welterweight title fight has inspired great debate on social media and elsewhere since it aired Saturday night in the United States. But Rushton is just as sure that Horn and Pacquiao produced praise-worthy drama as he is that Horn deserved the victory he was awarded by the three judges – New York’s Woleska Roldan (117-111), Argentina’s Ramon Cerdan (115-113) and Arizona’s Chris Flores (115-113).
“I said some time ago I thought this would become ‘Fight of the Year’ and people thought I was crazy,” Rushton said during the post-fight press conference Sunday. “But I think it’s gonna be hard to beat that fight. I mean, it had everything. It had accidental head clashes in there, both fighters were cut. It was just a great fight.
“I think, as we said, when Manny fought Mayweather, it was a cat-and-mouse game. This was always gonna be a cat-and-cat game. So two hunters out there, and what an entertaining spectacle. When you have stars that work beautifully together, it was gonna be a great fight. And I don’t think anyone left here today disappointed.”
The 38-year-old Pacquiao probably would beg to differ.
Pacquiao (59-7-2, 38 KOs) entered their fight as about a 6-1 favorite over Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs), but the Filipino struggled at times to offset Horn’s awkwardness, physicality and size in what developed into a grueling fight. Pacquiao, who suffered cuts around his left eye and near his hairline from accidental clashes of heads, nearly stopped Horn in the ninth round.
A resilient Horn survived that trouble, though, and came back win to each of the last three rounds on Woldan’s scorecard and two of the final three rounds on Flores’ scorecard. Cerdan scored two of the last three rounds for Pacquiao.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.