Hornet faces future after title fight hammering
Related Story: Completely outmatched by Crawford, where to now for Horn? Related Story: Horn's trainer says referee stopped fight too soon
It's the morning after the night before for Jeff Horn, and the Australian fighter is talking up his future prospects despite a punishing loss to American Terence Crawford in his world title bout in Las Vegas.
The Brisbane-based fighter lost his title when the referee stepped in during the ninth of 12 rounds and Horn was left battered and bruised afterwards.
"I've had 24 stitches put in my eyes, including the internal ones — 12, maybe six in each cut, plus the internals," Horn told the ABC the morning after the fight.
"I feel pretty good at the moment, cause I've just iced them, but I'm sure it will get sore here and there."
Horn said he has not watched the fight back yet, and will probably wait until he gets home to Australia.
First up, however, is a family holiday to Canada. The next item on the agenda is working out where to take his career after the loss.
"Not sure, I'm going to have to sit down with my promoter, Dean Lonergan from Duco, and [my trainer] Glenn Rushton and just figure out what we're going to do next and who we're going to fight," Horn said.
Horn failed twice to make the weight for the title fight, forced to sweat off the final 200g to make the 147-pound (66.7 kg) welterweight limit.
He laid the blame with promoters Top Rank, saying they played "tricks" with the official scales.
The Australian has no worries, however, about his ability to remain in the weight division.
"I can easily make welterweight I have no troubles there — and we'll look at other big welterweight names we can fight like [Shawn] Porter and [Danny] Garcia," Horn said.
Porter is a former IBF welterweight world champion, while Garcia has held belts at both light welterweight and welterweight.
The American pair are scheduled to meet in Brooklyn, New York later this year for the vacant WBC welterweight world title.
Another American being mentioned as a future opponent is Adrien "The Problem" Broner, a former world champion at weights from junior lightweight to welterweight.
"He would be a tricky customer as well, he's a very good boxer, but he's definitely got a mouth behind him, that's for sure!" Horn said.
"But I think I would have what it takes to beat him."
Given the loss, however, questions are also being asked about a possible match back home between the Hornet and veteran Anthony Mundine.
Horn's promoter, Lonergan, has been brutal in his assessment of the latter as a potential matchup, calling Mundine a "Neville Nobody".
The ex-champion was not as dismissive, but he was not rushing to endorse a potential bout with Mundine.
"Look, we've got to sit down and talk, it's not the biggest fight we would like to get, but we'll have to see what happens with Porter and all these other guys that are offering fights."
Asked whether a rematch with Crawford is on the cards, Horn was not definitive.
"Possibly, it's a future bout away, getting a rematch with him. I have no idea, couldn't tell you when."
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