Grandad driving force for champ

RAY Horn has asked for no presents at his 90th birthday party on Saturday night but says his grandson Jeff gave him the greatest gift imaginable when he won the world welterweight title against Manny Pacquiao in July.

The old bush battler grew up in Winton in outback Queensland. Back in the 1930s when Ray was barely old enough to go to school, he and his twin brother Gordon held boxing exhibitions at race meetings in Winton, Longreach and Barcaldine and the fighting Horns became something of a local attraction way out west in the days before television.

Horn credits Ray with giving him his mental toughness which the boxer calls his “greatest strength’’.

“A few years ago Pop lost his wife and his twin brother within a few years of each other and it knocked him around, but he kept fighting on and he’s a great teacher when it comes to rolling with life’s punches,’’ the champion said.