Welterweight world titleholder Jeff Horn was involved in a three-car accident in his hometown of Brisbane, Australia, on Thursday but escaped injury and his mandatory defense against Terence Crawford is still on.
Horn, who will make his second title defense since winning the 147-pound belt by highly controversial decision from Manny Pacquiao last July before a crowd of some 51,000 at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, is scheduled to face 2017 ESPN.com fighter of the year Crawford on June 9 in the main event of a Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
"We don't let little things like car accidents or bruised hands stop us unlike those (expletive) American fighters, who if it was them they would be crying right now they would have to delay the fight," Duco Events promoter Dean Lonergan, who co-promotes Horn with Top Rank, told ESPN in a text message.
Lonergan was dissing Crawford with his comments, alluding to the fact that when Crawford suffered a minor right hand injury during a sparring session he postponed the bout that was originally scheduled to take place on April 14.
Horn (18-0-1, 12 KOs), 30, took the day off from training after his car was hit from behind in the accident.
"No one was badly hurt but it stunned me,'' Horn told the Australian newspaper the Courier Mail. "Fortunately, I was in the car alone and my wife Jo and baby Isabelle were home. The man in the center of the crash just had his head buried in his hands. He was really upset, really in shock. I jumped out of the car to make sure everyone was OK. The ambulance people came but thankfully there weren't any serious injuries. It could have been much worse. The accident was a shock but nothing is going to derail me from beating Terence Crawford. I'm very fit. I feel I'm going to peak right at fight time."
Crawford, a former lightweight world champion, became the undisputed junior welterweight champion last August when he unified the division's four major belts by knocking out Julius Indongo in the third round. Then Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs), 30, of Omaha, Nebraska, vacated the belts to move up to the welterweight division to challenge Horn.
Horn made his first title defense on Dec. 13, also in Brisbane, and knocked out England's Gary Corcoran in the 11th round.
Next up is Crawford, and Carl Moretti, vice president of Top Rank, Crawford's promoter, was happy to hear that Horn was OK.
"We're thankful Jeff was not hurt in the accident," Moretti said. "However, come June 9 he's gonna run head straight into something that hits like a Mack truck and is as fast as a Lamborghini -- 'Bud' Crawford."