Jeff Horn: The Hornet Of Brisbane-The Sunshine State Exterminator-Fighting Schoolteacher Of Oz.

Jeffrey Horn 1988-02-04 is a 5'9 Welterweight with a 19-1 13 KO's record. Born in and fighting out of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Before his fateful encounter with The Hornet, Manny Pacquiao was asked about his upcoming opponent, and Manny dismissively responded, "I don't know who Jeff Horn is" well goddamn it... he does now. Horn a PE teacher with a Bachelor Of Education degree who's grandfather used to fight in exhibition matches in the Outback, qualified as an amateur to represent Australia in the 2012 Olympics, he was eliminated in the quarterfinals by talented Ukrainian Denis Berinchyk he turned pro shortly after and ever since he's quietly been racking up a list of decent names on his much maligned by the buffoonish Stephen A. Smith resume. While not on the level of a Thurman or Spence resume wise, the fact that he stopped long time German paper champion Rico Mueller, beat the talented and underrated Frenchman Ahmed El Mousaoui, stopped Ali Funeka and made Randall Bailey quit, shouldn't necessarily be sneezed at either. None of these guys are a walk in the park, they're all Van Heerden, Lo Greco, Dan, Bizier type opponents, and just because someone doesn't have the flashiest resume or have a dearth of experience, it doesn't mean that they should reflexively be written off when they get their chance to shine. Sometimes when facing their first big step up, many prospects crumble under the intense pressure and great expectations and fall completely apart, but on occasion when facing an almost insurmountable task, certain individuals can dig down deeper than others and rise to the occasion producing an almost Herculean effort to not only surpass all even low expectations and produce a sterling effort that will put them in the history books. Sometimes pressure produces a diamond.


That is exactly what Jeffrey did, will he be able to duplicate it? Who knows, but with that one performance he produced a seismic event that came close to equaling Tyson-Douglas, and that is what is so awesome about this sport, a teacher, an everyman that no one gave a chance to, grabbed this opportunity by the nuts and squeezed the living hell out it. The fact that all the butthurt fanboys and delusional casuals, many of whom were probably watching Boxing for the first time, took to social media to decry Horn and his once in a lifetime accomplishment, and ridicule him because they were brainwashed and misled by that delusional nutcase Teddy Atlas filling their heads with lies and inaccuracies quite frankly makes me sick. ESPN, Atlas, Smith and all the crybabies whining about this decision should be ashamed of themselves, is that where we are as a society? We attack the everyman underdog when he succeeds fairly and squarely against all odds and sympathize with the bigoted rich detached Icon who's doing for the money at this point. No wonder everything is so screwed up. I'm elated the rescored it and came to the same conclusion that the original for once rational judges came to, leaving his moral victory intact as well.

Back to Jeff, I eventually picked him to beat Manny, something that I thought was possible right after the match was rumored, but I didn't dare say a word fearing a massive backlash, and also coupled with doubt in my what I thought at the time demented inklings. But as the match drew closer, I became more and more convinced that Horn could pull the upset, here's my reasoning from various posts.

Here's my thoughts on Pacquiao-Horn, let's be honest, most of us have no real idea how good Horn really is. Much has been made of the KD's against Bailey and Funeka, yet most haven't actually seen them, the shot Bailey dropped him with was a clear as day rabbit punch, that landed fairly flush to the back of the head, that shot would have probably KO'd most fighters, and Horn gathered himself quickly, and fought back twice as hard. The Funeka KD was bull****, that came from a head clash. I think people are just reflexively throwing Horn under the bus due to the perceived fragility of Aussie fighters, yet IMO from what I've seen, he doesn't seem fragile at all, aside from his overall look.

He has home crowd advantage. Pac doesn't seem all that interested in this match in the build up, he's clearly not taking Horn seriously at all. He's treating him like a footnote, but since Horn is unproven, who's to say he isn't a beast, who's to say he won't be the next big thing. He has power, he's awkward as all hell, he's got fairly fast hands and reflexes, his defense is underrated, he gets hit flush infrequently, his counter punching skills are very underrated, he's actually a natural counter puncher, something people seem to be missing, and he can counter in combination, dare I say, he reminds me of a spindly Canelo Alvarez. While I know Pacquiao in all likelihood will be too much for him, who's to say Pac doesn't get old overnight and look his age against a much younger,, much fresher, taller, rangier and possible bigger puncher than he is. Pac hasn't had a KO in 9 years, and if Horn's chin is better than Algieri's then this could get interesting. Remember, Bradley hurt Pacquiao in the last fight.

Don't follow the crowd, don't have a kneejerk reaction. This has all the makings for an upset of epic proportions, and remember this is the year of the upset.

Horn is deceptively fast, awkward as all hell, throws shots from unique angles, has a beautiful lunging straight right, he has power, can counter well, deceptively good defense, he's rangy, and his has a funky rhythm that's hard to figure out and get the timing of, he has the size, and reach, if his chin can hold up, I think stylistically he can give Manny a ton of issues, and possibly score a shocking TKO or win by close SD. I'm sticking with Horn.

And those are the very reasons why I think Horn will prove to be a pain in the ass to Welterweights in the future, his rhythm is way more awkward that many people seem to process, which is ironic, since that's always been one of Manny's strongsuits as well. So don't write the Hornet off anymore, he's made a cacophonous statement that's louder than almost anyone in the Welterweight division has recently made, its best to not naively and smugly shrug it off, he's a player, deal with it, now treat him like one. Check Out the Pac Exterminator in Action.




Educate Yourselves
Horn Vs. Pacquiao

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Horn Vs. Funeka

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Horn Vs. Bailey

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Horn Vs. Mueller

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Horn Vs. Plotnykov

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****ing Brilliant.

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The Hornet has balls of steel. He's the only guy calling out Earl The Terrible.

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I actually think he would, he hasn't been part of some political machine that most American and British fighters have had guiding their careers, he hasn't learned how to be a ducker image protecting spin doctor yet. Pac should just retire, Horn's gonna **** him up again, so will every other top guy at WW at this point.

 

Like tealt said Horn isn't with TR, and Horn does make the most sense for Pac, but I don't see how Manny is going to make any huge adjustments with Jeff in the rematch, Manny usually doesn't improve all that much in rematches, and who's to say the first match didn't take a lot out of him, it was grueling at times, and Manny will be even older this time around.

 

Yeah it is, and I'm glad, its good for Aussie Boxing. Hopefully Horn can make it a twofer.