Jeff Horn displays grace in victory, and one helluva shiner

The champ’s head was pounding like a jackhammer. Still he gave every last part of himself to every fan who begged for a selfie, or just a slice of the Jeff Horn story.

Jeff Horn with his WBO belt in Brisbane yesterday.

Champion fighter. Champion bloke. For 10 years Glenn Rushton taught Jeff Horn how to hook, jab, duck, bob and weave his way through 12 rounds with an unbeatable monster. There was a quiet moment yesterday by the banks of the Brisbane River when the journeyman trainer looked across at the new welterweight boxing champion of the world and saw something fighters can’t be taught. It was grace.

“Head in the clouds, feet on the ground,” said Rushton, as Australia’s Cinderella Man knelt among a circle of schoolkids still buzzing from the part-time Queensland schoolteacher’s fairytale win over boxing immortal Manny ­Pacquiao.

The champ’s head was pounding like a jackhammer. Rays of perfect Queensland sunshine were bouncing off his right-eye shiner. The man looked like he was holding a cricket ball in his right-eye socket.

He was due at the doctor’s for a lunchtime appointment to have his blood-filled battle stitches ­inspected. In 24 hours he’d gone from “Jeff Who?” to “Jeff How Much?” and still he gave every last part of himself to every new-found fan who begged for a selfie, a signature, or just a slice of the Jeff Horn story.

“I think this is on the same level as Australia’s America’s Cup win,” Rushton said, before echoing former prime minister Bob Hawke’s famous declaration in the wake of that hallowed 1983 sporting ­moment. “Anyone who sacked someone for not turning up to work today is a bum!”

Horn revealed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was among those to send a congratulatory text message yesterday morning and the Queensland State of Origin team have invited Horn into their training camp this week.

Horn with wife Jo back at his Brisbane home. Picture: Adam Head

Horn was guaranteed a payment of $500,000 for the ­“Battle of Brisbane”, but a potential summer rematch with Pacquiao could earn him the kind of $10 million purse his opponent received for the brutal slugfest Rushton dubs “Sunday Bloody Sunday”.

“I think I unearthed a superstar,” Rushton said. “Nobody gave us a chance. The bookies didn’t give us a chance. But as I said to Jeff at the beginning, if you believe and I believe then it doesn’t matter what the world says. He always had this feeling he would do something great in his life. Well, when the student’s ready, the teacher will ­appear. He just walked into the gym at the right time.”

Horn spent yesterday afternoon resting the resilient head that one of the greatest boxers of all time spent 36 breathless minutes trying to knock off, under the close watch of his wife, Jo, and his mother, Liza. “I know Pacquiao will be sore,” Horn said. “I’m sore and I was the winner.”

Jo, who is expecting the couple’s first child — as the champ ­announced in an unforgettable post-match ring interview — was planning a quiet night in with a few of her husband’s favourite ­indulgences.

Horn with his father Jeff and mother Liza. Picture: Liam Kidston

“We’ll be playing a board game or two and eating some chocolate,” she told The Australian. “This all feels like I’m in a dream. Just a dream, that’s all it is. Jeff’s unbelievable. Everything he’s been through up until this point. All the sacrifices he’s made. All the training, everything. But he can live again for a bit now. Just ­unwind.”

Jeff with his mother Lisa as a youngster.

Horn’s mother, Liza Dykstra — who works for St Vinnies in Brisbane — said she spent the merciless fight thinking of two people: her beautiful son and Dionesia Dapidran-Pacquiao, Manny Pacquiao’s mum. “She would have felt every ­moment of that fight just like I did,” she said.

Rushton was somewhat less compassionate.

“I said it was going to be Sunday Bloody Sunday and it bloody well was,” he said of the historic 12-round blockbuster. “And when Manny’s trainer was talking about an early finish to the fight I said: ‘No, afraid not. This is gonna go deep and this is gonna test every fibre of Manny’s being.’

“I said Manny was gonna learn a lot about himself in this fight. He was going to see if the fire was still in his belly.”