MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
commission Nevada Athletic Commission
promoter Top Rank - Bob Arum
matchmaker Brad Goodman
television USA ESPN+, Australia Main Event
welterweight Jeff Horn 18 0 1
vs
Terence Crawford 32 0 0
World Boxing Organisation World Welterweight Title
World Boxing Organisation World Welterweight Title (supervisor: Francisco Valcarcel)
super lightweight Maxim Dadashev 10 0 0
vs
Darleys Perez 33 3 2
vacant NABF Super Lightweight Title
vacant USBA Super Lightweight Title
lightweight Antonio Moran 23 2 0
vs
Jose Pedraza 23 1 0
World Boxing Organisation Latino Lightweight Title
welterweight Jose Benavidez 26 0 0
vs
Frank Rojas 22 0 0
featherweight Shakur Stevenson 6 0 0
vs
Aelio Mesquita 16 1 0
light heavyweight Steven Nelson 10 0 0
vs
DeShon Webster 10 1 0
super featherweight Gabriel Flores Jr 7 0 0
vs
Jorge Rojas Zacazontetl 4 3 1
Nice article on Stu:
Horn's carefully-plotted path to Las Vegas
Jeff Horn
Matchmaker Stuart Duncan has carefully plotted the path for Jeff Horn and is upbeat he can win. (AAP)
Duco Events matchmaker Stuart Duncan helped pave the road Jeff Horn took to Las Vegas. He reckons he will leave a winner.
Almost every fight in Jeff Horn's professional boxing career has been part of a larger plan.
Every opponent he has faced has been selected for a reason - to get him to the top of the sport as quickly as possible, and make sure he is as ready as he could possibly be for that defining period of time.
That moment has arrived.
Horn's first mandatory defence of his WBO welterweight championship on Sunday (AEST) is, by far, the biggest test of his career.
Manny Pacquiao was big, sure, but the Filipino great was several years past his prime and it went down at Suncorp Stadium, Horn's beloved home turf.
Terence Crawford in Las Vegas is a different level. The 30-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska is at his peak. He oozes class. His record is blemish-free. His technical skills are nearly flawless.
He's got more hand speed than a Michelin star chef, of which you'll find plenty in this town.
In Vegas, Bob Arum's Top Rank promotions and broadcasting behemoth ESPN have pulled out every stop imaginable to give Crawford the edge so he can become the new face of US boxing.
Bookmakers are offering 5-1 odds for Horn to win. They've come in a long way, but it's clear that the incumbent champion is a massive underdog.
Stuart Duncan, however, gives him a red-hot chance.
Duncan is the man who convinced Duco Events to take a punt on Horn in the first place when they scoured Australia looking for a boxer to headline their push into the country.
He set in motion one of the great Australian sporting stories of the modern era.
He's the guy who helped pick all Horn's opponents but now that he's got the belt, you don't always get to pick them, and you certainly wouldn't pick one like Crawford.
Nevertheless, Duncan is tipping Horn to win via stoppage in round six or seven.
"I don't like to get too cocky," he told reporters in Las Vegas.
"I pay the respect to Crawford, he's undefeated in 32 fights.
"But I'm more confident with this fight than I was with the Manny Pacquiao fight."
Duncan is one of the lesser-known parts of the Horn machine.
Originally from Melbourne, Duncan has been in the boxing game for 20 years and is currently Duco's highly-respected matchmaker.
When Sylvester Stallone started up his TV series The Contender in 2004, he approached Duncan for help.
Duncan is methodical, almost surgical in his research. He believed Horn could beat Pacquiao and everyone thought he was crazy.
He believes he can beat Crawford, too.
Nobody else in the US does. Most pundits are utterly condescending towards Horn, as if he's a dinner guest who was never invited and still overstayed his welcome. But Duncan says he has an X-factor like no other.
The easiest way to explain it, he says, is to go to BoxRec, the online bible of boxing data and records, and look up their welterweight rankings. At the top is Jeff Horn.
"There's no brown paper bags of cash you can give to BoxRec to get your rating," Duncan said.
"Now, why is it Jeff Horn? It's because of the quality of opponents that he's faced.
"We tried to mix it up as much as we possibly could to best prepare him for potentially what lay ahead. As it turns out, it did lay ahead.
"We became more convinced every time we put him in the ring, because we would mix it up."
Some critics, Duncan notes, are starting to warm to Horn.
"What's happened is now everyone is starting to take a closer look at Jeff Horn. And the tide is turning," he said.
"You hear a lot of people who've actually changed their opinion and changed their tune.
"I've taken great delight in putting them up on my Facebook wall, saying 'another one, and another one, and another one.'"
Duncan has looked through 10 of what he deems to be Crawford's most relevant fights. After watching a fight once, he makes notes, watches it again, and then repeats the whole process again.
He writes down his findings on a giant whiteboard, sits back and thinks.
All up, it took him 41 hours. But he believes he and trainer Glenn Rushton have found a way to win.
"It took a while but we figured it out," Duncan said.
"I've worked with a lot of world-class coaches over a long period of time. Tactically he is one of the best. He is seriously good.
"We've identified the weaknesses in his style. If you look at the people he's fought, there are ways to create chinks in the armour.
"And we know how to expose more. There's unchartered water, there's things that boxers haven't done.
"I see Jeff clipping him early and when he does clip him early - I'm not saying he's going to knock him out early - that's going to change the flow of the fight.
"And I believe Jeff can grind him down by round six or seven. That's my honest opinion. I really believe he can do it."
Source: AAP
Horn v Crawford
Sky Sports 3
12.30pm fight time
Jeff Horn has more to give but being tough only gets you so far
By Phil Lutton
16 June 2018 — 3:54pm
In the days after Terence Crawford's win over Jeff Horn in Las Vegas, once the dust and the swelling had started to settle, the Australian finally had time to wander the casino floors and indulge in a few hands of poker.
The signs promoting the fight at the MGM Grand were being peeled off the walls and the sides of slot machines. Horn could slink back into relative anonymity, which suited him just fine given the relentless promotional schedule on which he'd just embarked.
By this stage, Crawford was already back in Nebraska, Horn's WBO welterweight belt in tow, and preparing for a media blitz of New York City as ESPN's new star continued to rise. They are desperate for him to show, or find, some personality to match his ringsmarts.
Horn, meanwhile, had been written off as a bum that was outclassed and had little reason to show his head in the division again. It was an hysterical hot take, typical of the US social media warriors, as was the home-grown notion he should simply beat up Anthony Mundine then retire at the age of 30 with 21 pro fights.
On a family holiday in Canada, Horn had a chance to take a breath after his title fight, when he was stopped in the ninth round against a man who only bolstered his credentials as the best – and probably the baddest as well – boxer in any division.
It should also be a chance for Horn's fans, his critics, his handlers and his promoters to step back and decide what's next for a boxer who came from nowhere to beat Manny Pacquiao, defended once, then had his colours lowered in clinical style by a merciless and almost sadistic Crawford.
Not everyone in the US believes Horn to be a lost cause. A leading figure in Top Rank, Bob Arum's promotional company, reached out to the Horn camp some days after the fight to help lift the spirits.
Lasting nine rounds against a fighter of Crawford's ilk, they reminded them, might well be the benchmark for a long time in the 147-pound division. He may have taken a pounding but even forcing some close rounds against 'Bud' suggests Horn has plenty to offer against elite fighters who don't happen to be future Hall of Famers.
It is a deep division and there has been little to suggest Horn doesn't want to force his way back to the title table over the next few years. He wants to retire early, yes, but not after a beyond-meaningless bout against Mundine, which the former schoolteacher would win with ease.
It would probably make him a decent purse? But talk of $2 million at this point remains fantasy. It's not a stadium fight and there is no bad blood whatsoever between the pair to fan interest. Horn is terrible at trash talking at the best of times. He's too nice of a bloke.
There is little rush, anyway, and the Horn camp should use the break to analyse their performance in the lead-up and even during the Crawford fight. It was an immense learning experience for his trainer Glenn Rushton and the rest of the team. They must be better for it should the US come calling again.
Rushton has done wonders with Horn, encouraging his awkward styling and helping him overcome a great such as Pacquiao so early in his pro career. Yet he too must analyse his fighter in the cold light of day and step back from the mythology they have created around his fabled toughness.
Rushton is a great motivator and presses all the right buttons with Horn. But framing everything as 'a battle of wills' won't be enough to compete with someone such as Crawford. It's no use leaving your soul in the ring if you can't land a meaningful punch.
Toppling Pacquiao was the best and worst thing that could happen to Horn. His chin is something else but he's not made of iron. Crawford delighted in proving that point.
The day after taking a kicking, Horn was kicking himself. He knew he needed to make some adjustments in there instead of being endlessly urged to charge forward, more often than not being whacked in the face for his troubles.
Crawford had him worked out by the second round. Something needed to change and on that front, perhaps Horn has to be more assertive with those handing out his riding instructions. He's managed to improve with every fight and must emerge from the loss with extra strings to his bow.
Horn's story has been a great one for boxing and Australian sport. But there's no room for sentiment in the fight business and the fairytale of the bullied teacher that made good must now be put to rest, for the moment at least.
Horn's next few moves must all be aimed at proving he can be a dangerous opponent in a division that has no shortage of intriguing opponents. And if he does fight Mundine, he must be prepared to wear the scorn of genuine fight fans before he trousers the cash.
Jeff Horn targets Kell Brook
By Ray Wheatley — World of Boxing
Former WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn has challenged former IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook. Horn’s promoter Dean Lonergan told Sky Sports, “I’ve got a text into Eddie Hearn at the moment. My matchmaker has an email and a phone call into Eddie. We love this fight, to have Jeff Horn fight Kell Brook. We would definitely go to England. The boxing market up there is on fire and Kell Brook in Sheffield, which is where he comes from, you’re definitely going to be filling a stadium wherever he fights.”
Good on Horn
Brook hasn't looked great and is getting sick of Khan messing him about.... why not good measure for Horn -