LOS ANGELES — Jeff Horn already felt confident he had won his bout with Manny Pacquiao, no matter what Filipino government officials or U.S. television commentators thought.
When an independent review this week affirmed the three ringside judges’ decision, the new WBO welterweight champion took the news as another win.
“I feel like I’ve defended the title again already, and I’ve only had it for a week,” Horn said.
After claiming Pacquiao’s 147-pound title July 2 in a stunning upset, Horn would welcome the chance to leave no doubt in a second bout with Pacquiao.
“I kind of feel it’s been put to bed now that I definitely won the fight because they rescored it,” Horn said. “But people are always going to have their opinions, and you’re never going to change some of those. I guess the only way to do it is to do it again, to have a rematch, and I think I would do even better the second time.”
While Horn and many of the 51,000 fans in the Australian stadium agreed with the three ringside judges’ verdict, Pacquiao was seen as the winner by everyone from an ESPN analyst, Teddy Atlas, to a department of the Philippines government, which requested the WBO’s official review of the scores.
Three of the five independent judges awarded the fight to Horn (17-0-1, 11 KOs), and an aggregation of those judges’ scores also favored the new champ.
“I felt like I had won, so if it had come back with (the independent judges) saying I hadn’t, I would have still felt like I did anyway,” Horn said. “But to have them say that everyone else that studied it (felt) I had definitely won the fight gives me another sense of relief.”
The victory has thrust instant stardom on Horn, the London Olympian and former schoolteacher. Horn plans to upgrade his family’s cars, and probably pay off the mortgage on their home, but also plans to keep pushing forward in his boxing career.
Pacquiao repeated his disagreement with the verdict this week, but also indicated on Twitter that he “will continue to fight” until he loses his passion.
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