Red carpet, or Maroons’ decider? Boxing champ weighs up invites
JEFF Horn is tossing up whether to brush the biggest red carpet event in US sports so he can roar home Queensland’s State of Origin team.
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JEFF Horn is tossing up whether to brush the biggest red carpet event in US sports so he can roar home Queensland’s State of Origin team.
Only a new world boxing champion with his heart made in Queensland would contemplate trading a ringside seat with superstars Steph Curry and Tom Brady for a night with Cam Smith and co.
That’s the dilemma that Horn’s suddenly crowded social calendar has thrown up since last Sunday’s epic boilover at Suncorp Stadium.
The ESPYS, the awards that bring together the best sports stories of the year on one special night, are being held in Los Angeles next Wednesday.
Fight promoter Bob Arum has asked Brisbane’s freshly-minted world champ to join him at a night that will celebrate Curry’s NBA heroics with Golden State, Brady’s Superbowl miracle and other heady highs in sports.
There’s just one thing.
“I really want to be watching Queensland … winning Origin,” Horn said of rugby’s league’s massive decider on the same night.
He has been invited to visit the Maroons at their Gold Coast camp by coach Kevin Walters, who caught the inspiration of the world title win as part of the 51,025-strong fight crowd at Suncorp Stadium.
Horn is spreading the good vibes for sporting underdogs everywhere.
Today, he visited Wallaby skipper Stephen Moore at Queensland Reds training before the poorly performed Super Rugby team’s Friday night clash against the Brumbies at Suncorp Stadium.
Horn was presented with a striking Indigenous Round jersey designed by 15-year-old Murgon High schoolgirl Janita Langton.
Horn is literally seeing his new world more clearly every day.
“My right eye has been closed since the fight. I put some more ice on it Tuesday, took it off and I had an eye again,” the affable Horn said with a grin.
“I’ve got over 2000 messages (on my phone) but I just haven’t got to them.”
He did hook up by phone with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and gratefully received congratulations from the top office in the land.
“Luckily, his was a phone call. It came through as an unrecognised number but I listened (to the voice message) and thought I’d better get back to him,” Horn said of the honour.
It might be that Horn takes the ESPYS invitation as a chance to unwind with pregnant wife Jo on a rare holiday to the US.
Horn stepped up to take the fight to the revered Manny Pacquiao so he’s unlikely to be perturbed by fronting a US media scrum at the ESPYS.
Even those American critics and celebrities who raged at the unanimous points decision given against Pacquiao are being talked down from their outrage by the day.
Horn has just been ranked in the world’s top 10 fighters, pound for pound, by the influential boxrec.com website.
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