Jeff Horn v Terence Crawford: Grave fears over ‘puncher’s gloves’

THEY ‘poisoned’ Phar Lap and did poor Les Darcy no favours. Now the rank Yanks want to nobble our champion fighter Jeff Horn, too.

JEFF Horn’s multimillion-dollar world title fight against American Terence Crawford is under threat after the promoter of Brisbane’s world champ said someone could die using the controversial boxing gloves proposed for the grudge bout.

Horn’s promoter Dean Lonergan has echoed the grave fears of the great Floyd Mayweather, saying the Everlast MX gloves that use horse hair as a filling instead of foam should be banned.

Horn is due to receive $2.5 million for risking his World Boxing Organisation welterweight title against the unbeaten American at the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas on June 9.

Jeff Horn. Picture: Peter Wallis

The MX gloves are known as “puncher’s gloves” because the filling can be pushed back towards the wrist so fighters have very little padding over their fists, making the impact of a punch carry the same force as a bare-knuckle blow.

Throughout his career, Mayweather, who compiled a 50-0 professional record and the greatest fortune of any fighter in boxing history, refused to take part in fights where horsehair gloves were used.

He banned his last opponent Conor McGregor from using them even though McGregor was a boxing novice.

Floyd Mayweather Jr refuses to fight anyone using the horse hair gloves. Picture: Getty

Mayweather famously said of horsehair gloves: “There ain’t no padding in the gloves. This is boxing, not bare-knuckle brawling. It is supposed to be a sport, even if it is a brutal sport. Guys are dying when they get beat with padded gloves and these gloves have no padding. I’ve got four beautiful children I love and I have a life after boxing.’’

When Horn and trainer Glenn Rushton heard Crawford was going to use the MX gloves, they immediately volunteered to do the same, saying the gloves would suit Horn more because he is the bigger fighter and heavier puncher. But Lonergan says he has a “duty of care’’ to both boxers.

Last night Lonergan wrote to Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum and a number of officials to demand the MX gloves be dropped for the fight in favour of foam-padded gloves.

He wrote: “Bob, it has come to my attention that Terence Crawford is going to fight on June 9 in a custom Everlast MX horsehair glove and as a result Jeff Horn will be doing the same. Horn has never fought in horsehair gloves before and is doing so only because Crawford is choosing to. Jeff usually wears ... a foam glove. After completing research on this issue I am very much against this horsehair type of glove being used on June 9 and I think we should put pressure on Crawford to not use this type of glove ... I think we as promoters have a care of duty to our fighters, and there is no doubt that the horsehair glove, particularly the Everlast MX, is a brutal glove, elevating the fight past boxing to what the greatest defensive fighter of all time, Floyd Mayweather, describes as bare-knuckle brawling.”

Dean Lonergan has asked Bob Arum and other boxing officials to demand the MX gloves be dropped. Picture: AAP/Glenn Hunt

Lonergan also sent the letter to Crawford’s manager Brian McIntyre, the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic commission Bob Bennett, the president of the WBO Francisco “Paco” Varcarcel and Australia’s WBO representative Danny Leigh.

Lonergan, a former New Zealand rugby league Test forward, said the horsehair gloves changed the fight game’’ from “the toughest sport in the world to one of brutality that harks back to the bare-knuckle days before the Marquess of Queensbury rules were enforced in the 1800s”.

The difference between regular boxing gloves and the controversial MX gloves explained.

He told The Sunday Mail: “I would also ask the question ‘If these gloves are used, and there is a serious injury or worse and it comes down to the difference in the type of glove used, who carries liability for the outcome and what will that liability be?’ ... it is my responsibility to make sure Jeff Horn finishes his boxing career with the same ability to think, walk and talk as he does now. With a number of boxers this sadly hasn’t been the case. Jeff Horn won’t stop no matter how much pain he is in. He will keep going.”

Terence Crawford at the Mendez Boxing Gym in New York City. Picture: Getty

NO FAIR GO IN LAND OF THE FREE

THE death of Aussie boxer Les Darcy in America in 1917 followed by the suspicious demise there of the Melbourne Cup winner Phar Lap in 1932 has fuelled generations of sporting conspiracy theories that we can’t get a fair go in the US.

Now Jeff Horn is caught up in a conspiracy theory of his own.

There is no secret Bob Arum wants Terence Crawford to knock out Horn in Vegas.

Arum, 86, has a long-term contract with Crawford so it’s in his interest for Crawford to score a spectacular KO so Arum’s company keeps the world welterweight title.

Australian boxer James Leslie “Les” Darcy in 1900. Picture: Getty

The Everlast MX horsehair gloves being worn by Crawford are favoured by fighters from Arum’s “Top Rank” stable and have often been at the centre of controversy.

In 2009 Top Rank fighter Antonio Margarito earned a year’s suspension when he was found to have wads of plaster of Paris concealed in his gloves before his fight with Shane Mosley.

In 1983, Luis Resto ended the career of rising star Billy Collins Jr with a brutal victory after Resto’s trainer removed some of the padding from his gloves.

Collins suffered such severe injuries that he could not box again.