Jeff Horn’s Trainer Talks About The stoppage (Against Tim Tszyu)

“I don’t sleep well when these things happen, you care an awful lot about the fighter. Just to clear up how the fight ended, the referee did actually stop the fight. Was Jeff getting badly hurt? No. But the pop wasn’t there, we could just see that the fire was gone,” Rushton said.

“We said to him at the end of the eighth round, ‘Jeff, do you want to go on?’. He shrugged his shoulders. Steven Edwards, the other cornerman, said ‘I think he’s answered the question’. Phil Austin came over and said ‘you’ve had enough’.

“The same thing happened in the Pacquiao fight and we didn’t [stop it]. I didn’t argue this time because the fire was gone. Would you encourage a champion to perform well, or would you let him chuck in the towel? Was Jeff badly hurt? No. Was he excessively fatigued? No. What reason was there for stopping the fight other than he was losing the fight. People expect you to deliver the best performance you can. Jeff Horn had a puncher’s chance of ending the fight, he’s done it before. But the hunger wasn’t there.”