Video: Jeff Horn’s corner calls off Tim Tszyu fight after beatdown

Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

The Australian mega-fight between Tim Tszyu and Jeff Horn was never a contest.

On Wednesday down in Townsville, Australia, a limited capacity crowd of about 16,000 fans at the Queensland Country Bank Stadium witnessed young junior middleweight Tim Tszyu (16-0, 12 KOs) take apart former welterweight champion Jeff Horn (20-3-1, 13 KOs) over eight mostly one-sided rounds. Yes, Tim Tszyu is the 25-year-old son of legendary former junior welterweight champion Kostya Tszyu. You feel old yet?

Tszyu scored two knockdowns of Horn, who’s best known for his controversial win over Manny Pacquiao back in 2017. Horn’s roughhouse tactics were easily nullified by Tim’s superior boxing skill and sharp punches. At the end of round eight, with Horn thoroughly beaten up and with little chance of victory, Horn’s trainers made the decision to throw in the towel.

Now I could just leave the story there and say this is an example of responsible cornering and honoring the fighter’s acknowledgement that they have nothing left in the tank. But Glenn Rushton, Horn’s trainer, has come under fire for the fact that this wasn’t stopped sooner (it really should’ve been) and that there wasn’t even consensus within Team Horn as to whether to send their fighter back out there for another beating.

“For Glenn Rushton to be sitting there at the end of the eighth round and to be asking him whether he wants to fight again, whether he’s got one more punch in him, whether he’s got one more minute in him was absolutely embarrassing,” The Daily Telegraph journalist Paul Kent said during the PPV broadcast.

“It showed the amateurism that’s been in Jeff Horn’s corner for much of his career and the greatness of Jeff Horn is that he’s been able to overcome that.”

Former world champion turned ringside analyst Jeff Fenech also heavily criticized Horn’s corner.

“To hear that corner argue about (stopping the fight), when Jeff Horn couldn’t even answer if he wanted to fight, to tell him to go back out is disgraceful.”

Maybe these guys should watch an MMA fight if they really want to be up in arms over poor cornering when a fighter is badly damaged and has virtually no chance of victory.

This is Tszyu’s biggest win of his career and at a minimum he’s an Australian superstar. Hopes of competing for major titles or facing big-named opponents at 154 lbs may be quelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, but he’s surely not far away from bigger fights.