Win puts Horn in line for bigmoney fight
BRISBANE: Jeff Horn retained his WBO welterweight championship with a gritty late stoppage win over Gary Corcoran in Brisbane yesterday.
Fighting for the first time since his famous upset over Manny Pacquiao in July, it was a lot closer than the 29yearold would have liked his first world title defence to be.
But Horn found a second wind late in the bout to seal a technical knockout in the 11th round, after Corcoran’s corner threw in the towel due to a nasty cut near his battered left eye.
‘‘I felt my timing was a bit off but I got him in the end,’’ Horn said.
‘‘The whole fight I felt I was a little bit off tonight.
‘‘I knew he was coming here prepared. They were talking a smart game . . . they definitely pushed me in there.’’
The result puts Horn in line for some bigmoney blockbusters against some of boxing’s biggest names in 2018.
His next opponent is likely to be arguably the world’s finest poundforpound fighter, Terence Crawford, in Las Vegas.
A rematch against Pacquiao is a possibility if Horn can pull off another againsttheodds win over the unbeaten American.
Horn was the heavy favourite with bookmakers and started the stronger but Corcoran, who had lost just one of his 18 career fights, proved to be no pushover.
The Londonbased Irish Traveller wanted to bring the fight in close and that is what he did throughout the early rounds, many of which were difficult to call.
Horn looked short of his usual energy — perhaps a product of his dramatic weight loss of 4kg in 24 hours to come under the welterweight limit.
But Corcoran tired quicker and eventually lost his momentum.
He was also warned twice by referee Benjy Esteves jun for hitting Horn in the back of the head and landed a flush right hand after the bell to end the seventh round — much to the anger of the nearcapacity crowd at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition centre.
The champion opened the