Jeff Horn

Jeffrey Christopher Horn Jr. (born 4 February 1988) is an Australian former professional boxer who competed from 2013 to 2020.

As a relative latecomer to the sport, Horn won his first Australian title in 2009 and repeated the feat in 2011.

He went on to win a silver medal at the Gee-Bee Tournament in Helsinki and compete at the 2011 AIBA World Boxing Championships in Baku where he lost to eventual champion Everton Lopes in the second round.

As an amateur, he represented Australia at the 2012 Olympics, reaching the quarterfinals of the light-welterweight bracket.

In 2012, he picked up his third Australian title and first Oceania title to earn a spot at the London Olympics.

Men's light-welterweight (64 kg)

Horn made his professional debut in Melbourne on 1 March 2013, winning by second-round technical knockout.

In just his seventh pro bout he outpointed two-time world title challenger and former IBF #1 contender Naoufel Ben Rabah.

On 27 April 2016, Horn faced former two-division world champion Randall Bailey.

After dropping Bailey in the second round, Horn was knocked down in the third round.

Horn won by TKO after Bailey refused to get up from his corner before round eight.

On 21 October 2016, Horn fought Rico Mueller and defeated the German by TKO in round nine.

After the fight, the WBO ranked him the #2 welterweight in the world.

On 10 December 2016, Horn faced former IBO welterweight champion Ali Funeka, whom he stopped in the sixth round.

With Top Rank promoter Bob Arum in attendance, his win set up a potential showdown with eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao.

He held the WBO welterweight title from 2017 to 2018.

Horn signed up to face WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao in Brisbane on 23 April 2017.

The announcement of the fight was met with relative surprise and disappointment due to Horn's limited exposure on the world stage, which led Pacquiao to comment "I don't know who Jeff Horn is".

A tweet on 12 February by Pacquiao complicated negotiations when he said that he planned to fight in the United Arab Emirates.

On 26 February, Pacquiao and Amir Khan announced that they had reached an agreement to fight, leaving Horn without an opponent.

On 7 March the fight with Khan was called off and on 5 April a deal for the Pacquiao–Horn fight was reached.

A press conference on 10 April signaled confirmation of the fight, which took place at Suncorp Stadium on 2 July 2017.

Horn defeated Pacquiao via unanimous decision after 12 rounds.

CompuBox stats showed that Pacquiao landed 182 out of 573 punches thrown (32%), whilst Horn landed only 92 of 625 thrown (15%).

Many pundits, as well as many current and former boxers, believed Pacquiao had done enough to retain the WBO title.

Horn's win over Pacquiao was also criticized by some boxing analysts, sports journalists and fans alike, with some comparing the decision to that of the controversial Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley fight.

In regards to the controversial scorecards, ESPN's Dan Rafael scored the fight 117–111 and ESPN analyst Teddy Atlas scored it 116–111, both for Pacquiao.

The Guardian and the International Business Times both scored the fight in Pacquiao's favor as well, 117–111.

BoxingScene had it 116–112 for Pacquiao, while CBS Sports scored the fight 114–114 even.

BoxNation's Steve Bunce scored the fight 115–113 for Horn.

In total, 12 of 15 media outlets scored the bout for Pacquiao, 2 of 15 outlets ruled in favor of Horn and 1 scored a draw.

Pacquiao claimed Horn got away with numerous dirty tactics in the fight, using illegal blows including elbows and headbutts.

In response to a formal request by the Philippine Games and Amusements Board, the WBO agreed to review the fight between Pacquiao and Horn.

It was scored round-by-round by five anonymous judges, but the WBO stated that they do not have the power to reverse the original result of the fight.

The WBO rescored the fight in favor of Horn winning seven rounds and Pacquiao winning five.

Initially, Horn was to give Pacquiao a rematch, but the rematch was delayed and did not eventuate.

As a result, Horn instead made a voluntary defence of the WBO title against Gary Corcoran on 13 December 2017.

Corcoran's corner decided to throw in the towel in the eleventh round, thus Horn retained the title via TKO.

Both fighters were cut during the fight, but Horn was leading on the scorecards at the time of the stoppage.

Horn was challenged by Terence Crawford on 9 June 2018, for the WBO welterweight title.